---
title: "Colour"
subtitle: "The palette and how it is used"
description: "BlackDoctor's colour palette: black, paper and gold, the neutral and gold scales behind them, the surfaces they sit on, and the pairings that clear WCAG AA."
author: "Studio"
section: "Brand Book"
subsection: "03 Visual Identity"
order: 2
status: "published"
---

BlackDoctor is black ink on warm paper with a single gold accent. Everything else is a step on one of two scales — a neutral scale from paper to black, and a gold scale from tint to ink — plus two soft highlighter surfaces. The values below are the brand's Figma variables; the web tokens that express them are on the [Website colour page](/website/color.html).

## Core palette

| Colour | Hex | Use |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Black | `#000000` | Ink: text, primary buttons, rules |
| Paper | `#f4f1ed` | The page ground |
| Gold | `#efb14d` | The accent: fills, selection, highlights, and text on black or the dark page |
| Warm grey | `#9d9488` | Surfaces and graphics only — it is 2.65:1 on paper and never carries text |

Print equivalents (CMYK, Pantone) come from the rebrand deliverables and are not derived from these hex values.

## Gold scale

Gold is a scale, not one colour, because the brand gold cannot carry text on paper: `#efb14d` measures 1.68:1 there, far below the 4.5:1 that WCAG AA asks of text. The 500 step is the gold; the 800 step is the gold that accented words, link underlines and hover states are set in on light surfaces.

| Step | Hex | Role |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 50 | `#fdf7ec` | Tint |
| 100 | `#fcefda` | Tint; warning surfaces |
| 150 | `#fae6c7` | Tint |
| 200 | `#f7daab` | |
| 300 | `#f4cc8a` | |
| 400 | `#f2bd69` | |
| 500 | `#efb14d` | **The brand gold** — fills, selection, the accent on black |
| 600 | `#ea9815` | |
| 700 | `#bb7a11` | Large text and graphics only (3.15:1 on paper) |
| 800 | `#83550c` | **Accent ink** — accented text, link underlines and hover states on light surfaces (5.70:1 on paper) |
| 900 | `#543708` | Warning ink |
| 950 | `#2f1e04` | |

The steps other than 500 and 800 are provisional stand-ins that hold the gold's hue at a stepped lightness; the final values are being supplied.

## Neutral scale

The neutrals are black laid over paper at increasing strength: step 150 is 5 % black, 500 is 40 %, 800 is 70 %. That is why they read as one family.

| Step | Hex | Use |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 50 | `#f9f8f6` | Panels that open over the page |
| 100 | `#f4f1ed` | Paper |
| 150 | `#e8e5e1` | Secondary surfaces |
| 200 | `#dcd9d5` | |
| 300 | `#c3c1be` | |
| 400 | `#aba9a6` | Decorative rules, placeholders |
| 500 | `#92918e` | |
| 600 | `#7a7977` | Control boundaries — the lightest grey that clears 3:1 on paper |
| 700 | `#62605f` | Faded text (5.55:1 on paper) |
| 800 | `#494847` | Secondary text (8.10:1 on paper) |
| 900 | `#31302f` | |
| 950 | `#181818` | The dark-mode page |
| 990 | `#000000` | Ink |

## Surfaces

| Surface | Light | Dark |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Page | `#f4f1ed` | `#181818` |
| Secondary | `#e8e5e1` | `#242424` |
| Plain (cards, inputs on a tinted ground) | `#ffffff` | `#2f2f2f` |
| Panel (menus, dropdowns) | `#f9f8f6` | `#2f2f2f` |
| Accent | `#efb14d` | `#efb14d` |
| Highlighter | `#c0e2d2` | — |
| Highlighter 2 | `#fae6cc` | — |

Dark mode is paper inverted: white ink on `#181818`, secondary text in `#e2dcd6`, and the true gold as the accent, where it measures 9.35:1.

## Rules

- **Gold never carries text on a light surface.** Use the 800 step for accented words, link underlines and hover states; link text itself is black. On black or the dark page the true gold is the accent.
- **Warm grey is a surface colour.** It sits under graphics and behind placeholders; it is not a text colour at any size.
- **Faded text is 60 % black**, not lighter. Anything lighter fails AA on paper.
- **Highlighters carry black text.** Both are grounds, never inks.
- **Selection is black on gold.**

## Checking a pairing

Every text-on-background pairing must clear WCAG 2.1 AA. Use the [Colour Pairing](/tools/color-pairing.html) tool to measure any two palette colours before a pairing ships.