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A very dark bluish gray, white text passes AA

Tailwind zinc-900

In Tailwind CSS 4.3.3, zinc-900 is defined as oklch(21% 0.006 285.885); in hex that is #18181b, or rgb(24 24 27). White text on it reaches 17.72:1, passing WCAG AAA, and Recolor (recolor.page) can show it on a real page.

Last updated

#18181bzinc-900
From the theme file of Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 (--color-zinc-900), converted with Recolor's color code, October 9, 2026
FormatValue
OKLCH, as Tailwind writes itoklch(21% 0.006 285.885)
Hex#18181b
RGBrgb(24 24 27)
HSLhsl(240 6% 10%)
CSS variablevar(--color-zinc-900)
Nearest CSS namemidnightblue #191970, 0.158 away in OKLab
White text17.72:1: AA passes, AAA passes, large text passes
Black text1.19:1: AA fails, AAA fails, large text fails

About zinc-900

In OKLCH, zinc-900 has a lightness of 21.0%, a chroma of 0.006 and a hue of 285.9 degrees, which makes it a very dark bluish gray. The step up to zinc-800 is 6.4 points of lightness, and the step down to zinc-950 6.9 points.

HSL calls its lightness 10%, OKLCH 21.0%: 11 points between a formula and a measure of what the eye sees. The value lies inside sRGB, the gamut of a hex code, so zinc-900 converts to #18181b without losing chroma.

For text, zinc-900 wants white: 17.72:1 clears even AAA's 7:1, and black at 1.19:1 fails AA. White text passes on every zinc shade from zinc-500 down, so zinc-900 is 4 shades past the line.

No CSS named color comes near it: the closest, midnightblue (#191970), is 0.158 away in OKLab.

Tints and shades

  1. #d4d3d3
  2. #aba9aa
  3. #838181
  4. #5e5b5c
  5. #3b3738
  6. #18181b
  7. #121010
  8. #0b0909
  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. #18181b
  2. #fe8cc5
  3. #574d00
  4. #f8d7e9
  5. #8d8300

Locked as the first of five swatches, zinc-900 gets #fe8cc5, #574d00, #f8d7e9, #8d8300 from Recolor's generator, a triadic palette, three hues a third of the wheel apart. The seed is its hex, so the palette stays the same. Open it in Recolor.

Using zinc-900

Pair it with text-white, 17.72:1; zinc-900 as text on a white page measures the same ratio. In CSS it is var(--color-zinc-900).

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

Common questions

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

Yes. White text measures 17.72:1 on zinc-900, above the 4.5:1 that WCAG AA asks of body text, and above AAA's 7:1 too.

Is Tailwind zinc-900 defined in OKLCH?

Yes. Tailwind CSS 4.3.3 defines it as --color-zinc-900: oklch(21% 0.006 285.885); #18181b is its conversion to sRGB.

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

No. The nearest CSS named color is midnightblue (#191970), 0.158 away in OKLab.

Sources