--- title: Alternative Colors for Pure Black | daily.dev description: A curated list of alternatives to pure black for text and backgrounds, featuring various shades and their corresponding HEX codes. These alternatives can... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/alternative-colors-for-pure-black-ijwzrkmjz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Alternative Colors for Pure Black | daily.dev og:description: A curated list of alternatives to pure black for text and backgrounds, featuring various shades and their corresponding HEX codes. These alternatives can... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/alternative-colors-for-pure-black-ijwzrkmjz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ijWzrkmJz.png og:image:alt: Alternative Colors for Pure Black og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Alternative Colors for Pure Black **[UX/UI](https://daily.dev/sources/uxui)** · [@heun3344](https://daily.dev/heun3344) · 1 min read · 2024 upvotes · 74 comments ## Summary A curated list of alternatives to pure black for text and backgrounds, featuring various shades and their corresponding HEX codes. These alternatives can enhance readability and provide subtler aesthetic options in digital design. ## Content  1. Charcoal Gray | Hex #121212 2. Dark Slate Gray | Hex: #191919 3. Outer Space | Hex: #252525 4. Rich Black | Hex: #0A0A0A 5. Coffee Bean | Hex: #1B1B1B 6. Dark Gray | Hex: #212427 7. Oil Black | Hex: #0C0C0C 8. Obsidian | Hex: #0B1215 9. Ebony | Hex: #222428 10. Black Chocolate | Hex: #100D08 11. Gunmetal | Hex: #1D1F21 12. Smoky Black | Hex: #101720 13. Oxford Blue | Hex: #212A37 14. Eerie Black | Hex: #232023 15. Jet Black | Hex: #161618 16. Iridium | Hex: #181818 17. Arsenic | Hex: #11181C 18. Charleston Green | Hex: #212124 19. Dark Gunmetal | Hex: #222428 20. Jet | Hex: #2A2A2A 21. Black Olive | Hex: #242526 22. Midnight Blue | Hex: #212121 This information is sourced from the article '[Alternatives to Using Pure Black (#000000) for Text and Backgrounds](https://uxplanet.org/alternatives-to-using-pure-black-000000-for-text-and-backgrounds-54ef0e733cdb)'. ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@jliter85** · 8 upvotes > Very Helpful, thank you! **@joemaffei** · 6 upvotes > A while back I created this color study in Codepen to find grayscale tones that “lean” towards certain colors, to help match with a predetermined color palette. https://codepen.io/joemaffei/pen/eYgjZZM **@kaimagicc** · 5 upvotes > A designer told me to actually not use pure black and instead use alternatives. Glad I found this post. Thank you. 👏 **@sumilsinha** · 2 upvotes > What an awesome resource!! This is taking shades to an extreme. **@breklinx** · 2 upvotes > Oh man. I love this. Black is my favorite absence of light. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux), [#ui-design](https://daily.dev/tags/ui-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/alternative-colors-for-pure-black-ijwzrkmjz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/alternative-colors-for-pure-black-ijwzrkmjz","headline":"Alternative Colors for Pure Black","text":"A curated list of alternatives to pure black for text and backgrounds, featuring various shades and their corresponding HEX codes. These alternatives can enhance readability and provide subtler aesthetic options in digital design.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/alternative-colors-for-pure-black-ijwzrkmjz","datePublished":"2024-10-02T13:36:39.945Z","dateModified":"2025-02-01T11:17:16.252Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Heunsig Jo","url":"https://daily.dev/heun3344","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/26696877?v=4","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":11065}},"interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2024},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":74}],"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Very Helpful, thank you!","datePublished":"2024-10-24T01:34:10.483Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ijWzrkmJz#c-Cm1ot3rvJ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"John Liter","url":"https://daily.dev/jliter85","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--DQ2HUrO4--/f_auto/v1785100315/avatars/avatar_yHf9cPdgTQEtokv6d8qhM?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"A while back I created this color study in Codepen to find grayscale tones that “lean” towards certain colors, to help match with a predetermined color palette. https://codepen.io/joemaffei/pen/eYgjZZM","datePublished":"2024-10-27T17:52:44.503Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ijWzrkmJz#c-Om6W1ze42","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Maffei","url":"https://daily.dev/joemaffei","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/9068746?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"A designer told me to actually not use pure black and instead use alternatives. Glad I found this post. Thank you. 👏","datePublished":"2024-10-25T06:28:29.495Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ijWzrkmJz#c-ZtPvaNEoM","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Kai Magic","url":"https://daily.dev/kaimagicc","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--YBLIRmK7--/f_auto/v1728841632/avatars/avatar_WE4cU2Y41q9B7CBzXO2wf"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"What an awesome resource!! This is taking shades to an extreme.","datePublished":"2024-10-25T16:05:00.017Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ijWzrkmJz#c-cLI0zHq4P","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Sumil Sinha","url":"https://daily.dev/sumilsinha","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKqwKSCztNxR7QTBg31nkr7ZaJVXfyxWRexlHDf_ePXuyd7_wQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Oh man. I love this. Black is my favorite absence of light.","datePublished":"2024-10-27T08:54:47.075Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ijWzrkmJz#c-G7ICCoRf6","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Breklin","url":"https://daily.dev/breklinx","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AAuE7mDEwUhA-S53W3VZ4omD-WMTIIfb6_k9U1KL5hY=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/uxui","name":"UX/UI"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UX/UI","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/uxui"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Alternative Colors for Pure Black"}]} ```