Dampened Ebony
Dampened Ebony (#53695F) is a true teal with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (153°, 12%, 37%) places it in the muted band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary magenta. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English dampian, to dampen — past-participle of dampen. As a color modifier, dampened implies a hushed-and-tone-reduced-and-quieted quality where the hue carries the visual register of moisture-or-fabric tone-reduced-and-quieted color treatment. Sits at the hushed-and-soft end of the grid, parallel to muffled and softened in usage.
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.