#252536 is a muted, temperate purple. On the Color Lab it reads clean and engineered, quietly premium. It is too dark to lead as a primary accent and reproduces cleanly in print.
Not just a swatch — here's how #252536 works with other colors. Named schemes with #252536 in its natural role, and a note on why the supporting colors balance it.
Gunmetal Gray plays the worn-leather lead, deepened by saddle brown and an oxblood anchor, softened by aged cream and cooled by a muted forest green.
Gunmetal Gray sets a calm, sun-bleached base here, wrapped in bone and paper off-whites and a soft greige, with a single ink accent for wabi-sabi restraint.
Gunmetal Gray carries the depth in this luxury scheme, offset by a brass accent and near-black and held together by a deep neutral and an off-white surface.
Gunmetal Gray adds the colour to this moody editorial scheme — charcoal and a mid-grey around it, a bone highlight, and a muted jewel accent drawn from Gunmetal Gray.
Gunmetal Gray is the single accent in this high-contrast editorial system — set on near-white paper against near-black ink, with a warm grey and a desaturated tint of Gunmetal Gray carrying the quiet middle.
How #252536 actually behaves in design work — read from its OKLCH lightness, chroma and hue, not just its raw numbers. Ten signals to help you decide where this color earns its place.
Not a swatch to memorise — a color to build with. Here is #252536 at work across the surfaces designers actually ship.
:root {
--color-base: #252536;
--color-base-rgb: 37 37 54;
--color-base-oklch: oklch(27.2% 0.031 284.1);
--color-50: #F6F6F9;
--color-100: #E7E7EF;
--color-200: #CECEDE;
--color-300: #ABABC4;
--color-400: #8989A9;
--color-500: #6A6A8B;
--color-600: #55556D;
--color-700: #40404F;
--color-800: #2C2C35;
--color-900: #1C1C21;
--color-on-base: #FFFFFF;
}
// tailwind.config.js
colors: {
gunmetal-gray: {
50: '#F6F6F9',
100: '#E7E7EF',
200: '#CECEDE',
300: '#ABABC4',
400: '#8989A9',
500: '#6A6A8B',
600: '#55556D',
700: '#40404F',
800: '#2C2C35',
900: '#1C1C21',
},
}
$base: #252536; $base-ink: #FFFFFF; $base-50: #F6F6F9; $base-100: #E7E7EF; $base-200: #CECEDE; $base-300: #ABABC4; $base-400: #8989A9; $base-500: #6A6A8B; $base-600: #55556D; $base-700: #40404F; $base-800: #2C2C35; $base-900: #1C1C21; $base-hover: #1E1E2C; $base-subtle: #B7B7C9;
{
"color": {
"base": {
"value": "#252536",
"type": "color"
},
"onBase": {
"value": "#FFFFFF",
"type": "color"
},
"scale": {
"50": {
"value": "#F6F6F9",
"type": "color"
},
"100": {
"value": "#E7E7EF",
"type": "color"
},
"200": {
"value": "#CECEDE",
"type": "color"
},
"300": {
"value": "#ABABC4",
"type": "color"
},
"400": {
"value": "#8989A9",
"type": "color"
},
"500": {
"value": "#6A6A8B",
"type": "color"
},
"600": {
"value": "#55556D",
"type": "color"
},
"700": {
"value": "#40404F",
"type": "color"
},
"800": {
"value": "#2C2C35",
"type": "color"
},
"900": {
"value": "#1C1C21",
"type": "color"
}
}
}
}