#2A2A38 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 #2A2A38 works with other colors. Named schemes with #2A2A38 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 #2A2A38 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 #2A2A38 at work across the surfaces designers actually ship.
:root {
--color-base: #2A2A38;
--color-base-rgb: 42 42 56;
--color-base-oklch: oklch(29.1% 0.025 284.7);
--color-50: #F6F6F9;
--color-100: #E8E8EE;
--color-200: #D1D1DC;
--color-300: #AFAFC1;
--color-400: #8D8DA5;
--color-500: #6E6E87;
--color-600: #58586A;
--color-700: #42424D;
--color-800: #2D2D34;
--color-900: #1D1D20;
--color-on-base: #FFFFFF;
}
// tailwind.config.js
colors: {
gunmetal-gray: {
50: '#F6F6F9',
100: '#E8E8EE',
200: '#D1D1DC',
300: '#AFAFC1',
400: '#8D8DA5',
500: '#6E6E87',
600: '#58586A',
700: '#42424D',
800: '#2D2D34',
900: '#1D1D20',
},
}
$base: #2A2A38; $base-ink: #FFFFFF; $base-50: #F6F6F9; $base-100: #E8E8EE; $base-200: #D1D1DC; $base-300: #AFAFC1; $base-400: #8D8DA5; $base-500: #6E6E87; $base-600: #58586A; $base-700: #42424D; $base-800: #2D2D34; $base-900: #1D1D20; $base-hover: #21212C; $base-subtle: #BABAC8;
{
"color": {
"base": {
"value": "#2A2A38",
"type": "color"
},
"onBase": {
"value": "#FFFFFF",
"type": "color"
},
"scale": {
"50": {
"value": "#F6F6F9",
"type": "color"
},
"100": {
"value": "#E8E8EE",
"type": "color"
},
"200": {
"value": "#D1D1DC",
"type": "color"
},
"300": {
"value": "#AFAFC1",
"type": "color"
},
"400": {
"value": "#8D8DA5",
"type": "color"
},
"500": {
"value": "#6E6E87",
"type": "color"
},
"600": {
"value": "#58586A",
"type": "color"
},
"700": {
"value": "#42424D",
"type": "color"
},
"800": {
"value": "#2D2D34",
"type": "color"
},
"900": {
"value": "#1D1D20",
"type": "color"
}
}
}
}