Dark Brown Hex Codes: 23 Deep, dark shades
23 deep, dark shades of brown with names, hex codes, contrast on white and the best text color for each.
These are the deep, dark shades of brown in Tintly's color library: 23 of the 81 brown shades. Dark shades give text, headers and the base of a dark theme. They carry white text easily.
Dark brown shades with hex codes
| Name | Hex | On white | Text on it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dwarf Fortress | #1D0200 | 19.79:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Shadow Play | #2D1403 | 17.31:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Close but No Cigar | #361D0A | 15.70:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Old Study | #431705 | 15.40:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Medium Roast | #3C2005 | 14.99:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Burned | #520B00 | 14.92:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Secret Passage | #372A05 | 14.03:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Chocolate Castle | #452207 | 14.14:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Evil Cigar | #522000 | 13.41:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Couch | #4E2A20 | 12.52:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Hot Fudge | #5E2912 | 11.65:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Moelleux au Chocolat | #553311 | 11.24:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Count Chocula | #5E2D10 | 11.29:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Roastery | #692302 | 11.40:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Prune | #701C11 | 11.27:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Madras | #473E23 | 10.59:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Chocolate Fantasies | #5C3612 | 10.54:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Avocado Stone | #4E3E1F | 10.33:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Obscure Ogre | #771908 | 10.89:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Pineapple | #563C0D | 10.25:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Meatloaf | #663311 | 10.26:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Chestnut | #742802 | 10.25:1 | #FFFFFF |
| Brown | #653700 | 10.00:1 | #FFFFFF |
How to use them
Use a dark shade for headings and body text on light pages, and as the background of a dark section with a light shade on top.
Standouts in this group
- Darkest: Dwarf Fortress (#1D0200), at 15% lightness.
- Lightest: Brown (#653700), at 39% lightness.
- Most saturated: Obscure Ogre (#771908).
- Best text color on white: Dwarf Fortress (#1D0200), at 19.79:1.
What the numbers say
Across all 81 brown shades in the library, lightness runs from 15% to 58%. 76 of them reach 4.5 to 1 on white, so they can be used as text on a light page, and 0 reach 4.5 to 1 on near-black, so they can be used as text on a dark page. The rest are for fills, surfaces and large type, where the requirement is lower. Within the deep, dark shades the figures are different: 23 of 23 pass on white.
Pairing with other families
The base brown (#7B4A2A) separates best from beige (5.23:1), yellow (4.47:1) and orange (2.79:1). Because brown stands for earth, wood and coffee, those pairings carry the most contrast of both color and meaning.
- Brown and beige: see the combinations in soft, bold and dark versions.
- Brown and yellow: see the combinations in soft, bold and dark versions.
- Brown and orange: see the combinations in soft, bold and dark versions.