#9CA3AF on black
Tailwind gray-400 — roughly Blue Fog — measured against black to WCAG 2.2 and APCA.
8.27:1
contrast ratio · APCA Lc 55
The quick brown fox
…and the same at 13 px
…and the same at 13 px
✓ Body text (AA, 4.5:1)
✓ Body text (AAA, 7:1)
✓ Large text (AA, 3:1)
✓ Borders and icons (1.4.11, 3:1)
Where you can use it
#9CA3AF clears AAA on black, so it works for body copy at any size, including the 7:1 bar most teams only aim at for long-form reading. It also clears the 3:1 required of borders, icons and focus rings.
Under colour blindness
Contrast is a lightness relationship, so a ratio survives colour blindness — but the pair can still lose the distinction it was carrying. This is the same two colours as seen with each dichromacy.
| Vision | Foreground | Background | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | #9CA3AF |
#000000 |
8.27:1 |
| Protanopia red-blind, ~1% of men |
#9F9FAC |
#000000 |
8.03:1 |
| Deuteranopia green-blind, ~6% of men |
#9F9EAC |
#000000 |
7.96:1 |
| Tritanopia blue-blind, rare |
#9CAAA9 |
#000000 |
8.74:1 |
What the thresholds mean
- 4.5:1 — WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3, the minimum for body text.
- 3:1 — the minimum for large text (18.66 px bold or 24 px regular) and, under 1.4.11, for any non-text thing you have to perceive: input borders, icons, focus indicators.
- 7:1 — AAA, criterion 1.4.6.
- APCA Lc 55 — a perceptual model that accounts for polarity, so dark-on-light and light-on-dark are not treated as the same problem. It is the direction WCAG 3 is heading and it disagrees with the ratio often enough to be worth reading alongside it.
Related
One passing pair is not a system
ColorsMine checks every pairing a palette implies, in light and dark, and names the single change that moves the grade most.
Open ColorsMine