Shades of black

Shades of black, oroff-black colors, arecolorsthat differ only slightly from pureblack. These colors have a lowlightness. From a photometric point of view, a color which differs slightly from black always has lowrelative luminance. Colors often considered "shades of black" include onyx, black olive, charcoal, and jet.
These colors may be considered for part of a neutralcolor scheme, usually ininterior designas a part of a background for brighter colors.  Black and dark gray colors are powerful accent colors that suggest weight, dignity, formality, and solemnity.
Incolor theory, ashadeis a pure color mixed with black. It decreases its lightness while nearly conserving itschromaticity. Strictly speaking, a "shade of black" is always a pure black itself and a "tint of black" would be a neutral gray. In practice, many off-black colors possess ahueand acolorfulness(also called saturation).
Blackis a color, theperceptionof which is evoked by the total absence oflightthat stimulates any of the three types of color sensitivecone cellsin the human eye and with very lowbrightnesscompared to the surroundings. A black visual stimulation will be void ofhueand grayness. Black is the darkest possible color.
Surface treatments to reflect as little light as possible have been developed throughout history, usually based oncarbon.Intensive research to approach the idealblack body(which would absorb all incidentelectromagnetic radiation) though has emerged mainly in the 21st century. Important technical blacks includecarbon black,super blackandVantablack.
In printing,rich blackuses 100% black ink with the addition of other inks to achieve a blacker color.
The colors are arranged in order ofvalueor brightness, with the lightest colors at the top and the darkest at the bottom.
Theweb colordim gray is a dark tone ofgray.
The color namedim grayfirst came into use in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the colors on theX11 color list, introduced that year. After the invention of theWorld Wide Webin 1991, these colors became known as the "X11 web colors".
Cool black is a dark shade ofblue. It is one of thePantonecolors.
The color ebony is a representation of the color of the woodebony, a tropical hardwood widely used to make fine furniture, notably for French kings.
The first use ofebonyas a color name in English was in 1590.
Davy's gray is a dark gray color, made from powderedslate,iron oxideandcarbon blacknamed forHenry Davy.
The first recorded use ofDavy's grayas a color name in English was in the 19th century (precise date uncertain).
Charcoal is a color that is a representation of the dark gray color ofburned wood.
The first recorded use ofcharcoalas a color name in English was in 1606.
The color Outer Space was formulated byCrayolain 1998.
The color displayed at right matches the color sample called taupe referenced below in the 1930 bookA Dictionary of Color, the world standard for color terms before the invention of computers.  However, the wordtaupeis currently often used to refer to lighter shades of taupe, and therefore another name for this color is dark taupe.
The first use oftaupeas a color name in English was in the early 19th century (exact year is not known).
Black bean is a color that resemblesblack beans.  It is on theXona.com Color List, which was formulated in 2001.
Black olive is a representation of the color ofblack olives. Also known as olive, color No. 6015, in theRAL color matching system, widely used in Europe.
The color onyx is a representation of the color ofonyx.
This is one of the colors in the Crayola specialty crayon set called "Gem Tones", introduced in 1994.
The color jet, also called jet black, is a representation of the color of the mineraloidjet.
The first recorded use ofjetas a color name in English was in 1450.
Raisin blackis a color that is a representation of the color of blackraisins.
According to a popular story, the color Charleston green originated after theAmerican Civil War, when the North provided black paint to the South for use in itsreconstruction. The inhabitants ofCharleston, South Carolinamixed the black with a little bit of yellow and blue and created Charleston green. The earliest known use of the term to describe a dark shade of greenish black is 1953.
Since this color has a hue code of 180, it is actually an extremely dark shade ofcyan. The paint manufacturer Duron/Sherwin-Williamspaint color number for "historic Charleston green" is DCR099—the color sample at right was taken from this color swatch (hex code #232B2B), which is on the website accessible called Colors of Historic Charleston.This color looks black unless the sun hits it just right, and then the color registers a very darkforest green. FromRust-Oleumpaint company it is color No. 214086 but still looks black on color cards.
The color eerie black was formulated by Crayola in the early 2000s as one of the colors in itsHeads 'n Tailsspecialty box of colors.
The color licorice (also known as light black)was introduced by Crayola in 1994 as one of the colors in its specialty Crayola Magic Scent crayons with the scent oflicorice candy.