Black and Gold color palette
black
goldenrod · 0.025
Think of a luxury hotel monogram, a whiskey label, or a law firm's nameplate. Black and gold signals expense without saying a word. The black (#0A0A0A) reads as near-pure with no tint, letting the gold (#D4AF37) carry the personality with its warm cast and metallic feel on screen.
The wide lightness gap gives a 9.42:1 that passes AAA, so gold type on black or black type on gold stays readable at small sizes. Use it for logos, wordmarks, and headers, keeping black as the dominant field and gold in small doses like a rule line or a single word. Too much gold flattens the effect.
See Black and Gold in use
better
Black Tailwind scale (50-900)
Gold Tailwind scale (50-900)
Black to Gold blend
A continuous interpolation from Black to Gold, sampled into the 10 steps below. Tap any swatch to copy its hex.
Why Black and Gold blend best in OKLab
The same two colors blended three ways. This site uses OKLab, which keeps the blend smooth and evenly lit. The other two are shown so you can see what to avoid: sRGB darkens and muddies the middle, and HSL detours through colors that are not in your palette.
Accessibility
Black and Gold can be used together as text and background.
Contrast pairing grid
Rows are Black steps, columns are Gold steps. Each mark is a Black step shown on a Gold step: a check means it clears WCAG AA for text (4.5:1). If you can read the mark, the pairing is legible.
| 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 100 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 200 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 300 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 400 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 500 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 600 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 700 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 800 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 900 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
✓ passes AA ✗ fails AA
Copy for Tailwind
Tailwind v4 — @theme (paste into your CSS)
@theme {
--color-black-50: #EEEEEE;
--color-black-100: #DDDDDD;
--color-black-200: #C1C1C1;
--color-black-300: #9C9C9C;
--color-black-400: #6C6C6C;
--color-black-500: #0A0A0A;
--color-black-600: #060606;
--color-black-700: #030303;
--color-black-800: #010101;
--color-black-900: #000000;
--color-gold-50: #FCFAF4;
--color-gold-100: #FAF6E9;
--color-gold-200: #F6EED8;
--color-gold-300: #EFE3BE;
--color-gold-400: #E7D49B;
--color-gold-500: #D4AF37;
--color-gold-600: #AD8F2B;
--color-gold-700: #836B1E;
--color-gold-800: #4C3D0E;
--color-gold-900: #201803;
}
Tailwind v3 — tailwind.config.js
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'black': {
50: '#EEEEEE',
100: '#DDDDDD',
200: '#C1C1C1',
300: '#9C9C9C',
400: '#6C6C6C',
500: '#0A0A0A',
600: '#060606',
700: '#030303',
800: '#010101',
900: '#000000',
},
'gold': {
50: '#FCFAF4',
100: '#FAF6E9',
200: '#F6EED8',
300: '#EFE3BE',
400: '#E7D49B',
500: '#D4AF37',
600: '#AD8F2B',
700: '#836B1E',
800: '#4C3D0E',
900: '#201803',
},
},
},
},
};
CSS variables
:root {
--black-50: #EEEEEE;
--black-100: #DDDDDD;
--black-200: #C1C1C1;
--black-300: #9C9C9C;
--black-400: #6C6C6C;
--black-500: #0A0A0A;
--black-600: #060606;
--black-700: #030303;
--black-800: #010101;
--black-900: #000000;
--gold-50: #FCFAF4;
--gold-100: #FAF6E9;
--gold-200: #F6EED8;
--gold-300: #EFE3BE;
--gold-400: #E7D49B;
--gold-500: #D4AF37;
--gold-600: #AD8F2B;
--gold-700: #836B1E;
--gold-800: #4C3D0E;
--gold-900: #201803;
}SCSS variables
$black-50: #EEEEEE; $black-100: #DDDDDD; $black-200: #C1C1C1; $black-300: #9C9C9C; $black-400: #6C6C6C; $black-500: #0A0A0A; $black-600: #060606; $black-700: #030303; $black-800: #010101; $black-900: #000000; $gold-50: #FCFAF4; $gold-100: #FAF6E9; $gold-200: #F6EED8; $gold-300: #EFE3BE; $gold-400: #E7D49B; $gold-500: #D4AF37; $gold-600: #AD8F2B; $gold-700: #836B1E; $gold-800: #4C3D0E; $gold-900: #201803;
JSON tokens
{
"black": {
"50": "#EEEEEE",
"100": "#DDDDDD",
"200": "#C1C1C1",
"300": "#9C9C9C",
"400": "#6C6C6C",
"500": "#0A0A0A",
"600": "#060606",
"700": "#030303",
"800": "#010101",
"900": "#000000"
},
"gold": {
"50": "#FCFAF4",
"100": "#FAF6E9",
"200": "#F6EED8",
"300": "#EFE3BE",
"400": "#E7D49B",
"500": "#D4AF37",
"600": "#AD8F2B",
"700": "#836B1E",
"800": "#4C3D0E",
"900": "#201803"
}
}How we name colors
There is no single official authority for naming colors. We use the common, widely recognized name as the primary label for each color (here, Black and Gold); many common names are themselves W3C CSS named colors. For transparency we also show the nearest W3C CSS named color and the perceptual distance, ΔE, measured in OKLab. A small ΔE means the name is essentially exact; a larger one means it is the closest standard name rather than a perfect match.
Sources: W3C CSS Color Module Level 4 and the open color-name-list dataset, used to verify every color sits near a recognized name.