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A very dark gray, white text passes AA

Tailwind neutral-900

The hex code of Tailwind neutral-900 is #171717 (rgb(23 23 23)), from its Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 value oklch(20.5% 0 none). White text on it reaches 17.93:1, passing WCAG AAA; below, Recolor (recolor.page) puts it on a page.

Last updated

#171717neutral-900
From the theme file of Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 (--color-neutral-900), converted with Recolor's color code, October 9, 2026
FormatValue
OKLCH, as Tailwind writes itoklch(20.5% 0 none)
Hex#171717
RGBrgb(23 23 23)
HSLhsl(0 0% 9%)
CSS variablevar(--color-neutral-900)
Nearest CSS namemidnightblue #191970, 0.166 away in OKLab
White text17.93:1: AA passes, AAA passes, large text passes
Black text1.17:1: AA fails, AAA fails, large text fails

About neutral-900

Read as numbers, neutral-900 is lightness 20.5%, chroma 0.000 and no hue; read by eye, it is a very dark gray. Its neighbors on the neutral scale are neutral-800, 6.4 points lighter, and neutral-950, 6.0 points darker.

Its lightness is 9% in HSL and 20.5% in OKLCH, 11 points apart; only the second tracks how light it looks. No gamut mapping is needed here: oklch(20.5% 0 none) sits inside sRGB and #171717 matches it.

White on neutral-900 reads at 17.93:1, enough for AAA body text; black reaches 1.17:1 and should stay off it. On the neutral scale white text works from neutral-500 to neutral-950; neutral-900 has 4 shades of margin.

CSS has no keyword in its neighborhood; midnightblue (#191970) is the nearest, a long 0.166 away in OKLab.

Tints and shades

  1. #d3d3d3
  2. #a9a9a9
  3. #818181
  4. #5b5b5b
  5. #373737
  6. #171717
  7. #0f0f0f
  8. #080808
  9. #040404
  10. #010101

From light to dark: 5 toward white and 4 toward black, mixed in OKLCH a sixth of the way at a time with the hue kept. A step that would repeat its neighbor is left out.

A palette around it

  1. #171717
  2. #f2b2bc
  3. #824e00
  4. #c4edf7
  5. #538b9b

Around neutral-900 as swatch 1, Recolor's generator made a split-complementary palette, built on the two hues beside its opposite: #f2b2bc, #824e00, #c4edf7, #538b9b, drawn from a seed fixed by its hex. Open it in Recolor.

Using neutral-900

Pair it with text-white, 17.93:1; neutral-900 as text on a white page measures the same ratio. In CSS it is var(--color-neutral-900).

HTML
<a class="bg-neutral-900 text-white" href="/start">Get started</a>
<p class="text-neutral-900">Text in neutral-900</p>

Common questions

Does white text pass WCAG AA on Tailwind neutral-900?

Yes. White text measures 17.93:1 on neutral-900, above the 4.5:1 that WCAG AA asks of body text, and above AAA's 7:1 too.

Is Tailwind neutral-900 defined in OKLCH?

Yes. Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 defines it as --color-neutral-900: oklch(20.5% 0 none); #171717 is its conversion to sRGB.

Is there a CSS named color for Tailwind neutral-900?

No. The nearest CSS named color is midnightblue (#191970), 0.166 away in OKLab.

Sources