Black in paint is the absence of reflected light, so mixing aims to absorb as much as possible. Dark opposite colors absorb the most.
Black has no hue, so the color wheel rules do not apply. This page shows contrast figures instead.
CSS black is every screen lamp off. Paint blacks reflect a little light, so a mixed black is always slightly lighter than this.
In paint
Without our black tube, the darkest mixes in our paint model pair a dark blue or violet with red or green. They stay visibly lighter and tinted compared with a tube black.
Closest two-paint mixes
- += 40% Red + 60% Blue #41314A · ΔE 21.0 from black
- += 40% Green + 60% Violet #434B53 · ΔE 21.5 from black
- += 60% Green + 40% Magenta #524D4C · ΔE 22.4 from black
- += 45% Red + 55% Green #59443C · ΔE 23.0 from black
- += 55% Red + 45% Cyan #54414E · ΔE 23.1 from black
Equal parts
- += Blue + Orange #5D7639 · ΔE 39.4 from black
- += Violet + Yellow #B68C42 · ΔE 52.4 from black
- ++= Red + Green + Blue #4C3E41 · ΔE 19.8 from black
ΔE is the CIEDE2000 color difference between the mix and black. Zero means the same color; the smaller the number, the closer the mix.
In light
Light cannot be mixed into black. On a screen, black is simply all lamps off.
The three lamps at these levels give #000000. Levels are the amount of light each lamp gives out, which is not the same scale as the 0–255 numbers in a color code; the method page shows the conversion.
Contrast
The contrast table shows how readable each color is against black, using the formula from the web accessibility guidelines.
| Paint | Contrast with black |
|---|---|
| Red | 3.93 : 1 |
| Yellow | 14.76 : 1 |
| Blue | 2.27 : 1 |
| Orange | 8.55 : 1 |
| Green | 4.55 : 1 |
| Violet | 2.13 : 1 |
| Magenta | 3.71 : 1 |
| Cyan | 6.33 : 1 |
| White | 19.20 : 1 |
| Black | 1.21 : 1 |
Black mixed with each paint
Start from black (#000000) and add one of our ten stand-in paints. Shares are by amount, in our paint model.
| Add | 75% black + 25% | 50% black + 50% | 25% black + 75% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | #24181B | #64262F | #AC2630 |
| Yellow | #484A2F | #989837 | #D7C929 |
| Blue | #101314 | #1D3142 | #1C3F80 |
| Orange | #373626 | #856E2E | #CC8825 |
| Green | #1E2520 | #315A39 | #307D3F |
| Violet | #121012 | #36273D | #532D6F |
| Magenta | #221720 | #602450 | #A32072 |
| Cyan | #1C2E2F | #236A73 | #0F90B1 |
| White | #525252 | #A3A3A2 | #DADAD8 |
| Black | #030303 | #101010 | #181818 |
Named blacks in CSS
| CSS name | Swatch | Code | ΔE from this page's black |
|---|---|---|---|
| black | #000000 | 0.0 |
Paint results come from a pigment model and our ten stand-in paints, not from real tubes, which vary by brand and pigment. Try any pair in the color mixer, or read how each swatch is worked out.