Black color: #000000
The CSS keyword black is #000000, rgb(0, 0, 0) or hsl(0, 0%, 0%). Its codes to copy, 50–950 tint scale, harmonies and contrast on white and black.
Part of design tools.
About Black
Black is pure black, the absence of any light. Having no hue, it reads the same in every color space: only its lightness changes between notations.
The keyword black is one of the sixteen original HTML 4 colors, the whole palette of CSS 1, so it is understood by every browser and every email client ever shipped.
Black tint scale, 50 to 950
Eleven neutral steps at fixed perceived lightness, in OKLCH: every pure grey shares this scale, and what sets each one apart is where it sits on it. The keyword itself falls closest to step 950 (#181818), the one outlined; step 500 is #868686.
Harmonies built on Black
Black has no hue, so there is nothing to rotate: a complementary or triadic scheme would give back the same grey. What remains is the monochromatic scheme — the same neutral at four lightness steps.
Monochromatic
Black on white and on black
White text reads better on black (21.00:1). As a text color it is readable on a white page (21.00:1, AAA). AA asks 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text; AAA asks 7:1.
Named colors close to Black
Open black in the full tools
- Open in Color Converter — convert it to any other notation.
- Open in Palette Generator — export its scale as --black-50 … --black-950 tokens.
- Open in Color Harmonies — turn the wheel and compare OKLCH with HSL.
- Open in Contrast Checker — test it against any background, with the closest passing shade.
- Open in Color System Generator — derive a light and dark token set from it.
Or browse every named color from the color converter.