Information about #424242 color
Basic facts about this digital color
#424242 presents itself as a muted, almost neutral grey — one that sits comfortably between light and dark. In practice it works well for balanced palettes where no single element should shout. In The Official Register of Color Names it is practically indistinguishable from Windswept (#434141). Nearby in the Register you will also find Half Nocturnal (#434345) and Tuatara (#454642).
Under the hood all three RGB channels are equal (66 each), placing #424242 exactly on the neutral axis of the color space. On this background, white text reaches a 10.0:1 contrast ratio (passing WCAG AAA); black stays at 2.1:1. On paper it relies strongly on black ink (K:74), so proof dark layouts before a large print run. This shade is reserved in the Register and is not available for naming.
#424242 color variations
View this color variations of tints, shades, tones and hues.
#424242 color tints
Tints look brighter, pastel, and less intense.
#424242 color shades
Shades look darker, richer, and more solid.
#424242 color tones
Tones looks more sophisticated and complex than base colors.
Why this page shows fewer blocks
#424242 belongs to the Greyscale Color Family, and greyscale colors have no hue. Hue is an angle on the color wheel, and that angle only exists when a color leans toward one primary more than the others. Here all three channels are equal (R = G = B), so there is nothing to lean and no angle to measure.
Everything built on rotating that angle therefore has nothing to rotate. A complementary color is the hue 180° away — for a grey, that is the same grey. The same goes for analogous, triadic, tetradic and square harmonies. Rather than show seven identical swatches, the register leaves the Hues variation strip and the whole Harmonies section out.
What remains is everything that depends on lightness rather than hue. Tints, shades and tones still work, because they move the color up and down the scale instead of around the wheel. So do the nearest named colors, the conversions and the adjacent color codes.
How the register classifies colors · All greyscale colors in the register
Alternatives to #424242 color
View adjacent and very similar colors.
Nearest named colors to #424242
The closest officially registered color names in the Register, ordered by similarity.
#434141
#434345
#454642
#3E4145
#3D4040
#46413E
#3C4142
#473F40
#43403C
#463E3F
#3E4147
#3C4543
#424242 color backgrounds & wallpapers
Download color wallpaper / background for your Desktop PC, Tablet or Mobile phone.
Conversions between color systems and etc.
- HEX#424242
- RGB66, 66, 66
- CMYK0, 0, 0, 74
- CSSrgb(66, 66, 66)
- HSL0°, 0%, 26%
- HSL Precise0°, 0%, 25.882%
- HSV0°, 0%, 26%
- HSB0°, 0%, 26%
- Normalized R (0.0–1.0)0.259
- Normalized G (0.0–1.0)0.259
- Normalized B (0.0–1.0)0.259
- GLSLvec3(0.259, 0.259, 0.259)
- GLSL with alphavec4(0.259, 0.259, 0.259, 1.000)
- HLSL / Metalfloat3(0.259, 0.259, 0.259)
- Percentage of Red in RGB25.9%
- Percentage of Green in RGB25.9%
- Percentage of Blue in RGB25.9%
- Color FamilyGreyscale
- Saturation FamilyDesaturated
- Lightness FamilyNeutral
- HEX ID424242
- DECIMAL ID4342338
- Name LengthThis color has no name
- This page visited302 times
- Counting from2025-01-01
