Color family
White Colors: Names, HEX Codes & Off-Whites
The white family holds pure white (#FFFFFF) and the very light, nearly neutral off-whites: ivory, linen, beige, snow, seashell and similar names. They all have a lightness above about 91% and very little color, so the differences are subtle, usually a hint of warm or cool tint.
Off-whites are common page and card backgrounds because they soften pure white without changing how text works. Ivory (#FFFFF0) has 20.81:1 contrast with black and beige (#F5F5DC) 18.97:1, and every color in this family reaches 4.5:1 with black text.
White colors at a glance
Popular white colors
Using white colors
- Page and card backgrounds that feel softer than pure white.
- Paper, parchment and print-style designs.
- Text on dark backgrounds, where off-white can look less harsh than #FFFFFF.
- Subtle section backgrounds that separate content without a border.
Choose one off-white for the page and one for cards, and keep them consistent. Several near-identical whites look like a mistake.
White text on black is the highest contrast (21:1), but many designers soften both ends for long reading.