Steely Ebony
Steely Ebony (#0B0012) is a deep indigo with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (277°, 100%, 4%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
An adjectival form of steel — used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues with the slight blue-gray of tempered or polished steel. Steely gray, steely blue: moderate-to-low saturation combined with the optical impression of metallic surface. Sits in the neutral-and-cool corner alongside cold.
The genus Diospyros — particularly D. ebenum of Sri Lanka and D. crassiflora of West Africa — whose dense black heartwood has been carved for ornament since the Egyptian Old Kingdom. The color refers to polished African blackwood: a deep, slightly warm matte black with the satin finish of close-grained hardwood. Warmer than obsidian, drier than pitch, with the carving weight of a wood that sinks in water and sharpens its own tools.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.
Wide gamut
The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.
This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.