Lacquer Black

HEX

#0F1419

RGB

15, 20, 25

CMYK

40, 20, 0, 90

HSL

210\u00b0, 25%, 8%

Tailwind

bg-[#0f1419]

Thaitone index

#15

What Lacquer Black is

Thai Lacquer Black (รักดำ, rak dam) is the deep near-black of traditional Thai lacquerware — not pure black but a dense blue-biased very-dark tone at #0f1419 that carries a subtle warmth when applied in layered resin. The base material is natural lacquer (rak) harvested from the Gluta usitata tree and applied in multiple thin coats, each dried and polished before the next.

Pittayamatee’s Thaitone register documents it as the ceremonial black of gilded lacquerware rather than pure printing-ink black. The subtle blue bias comes from the way lacquer resin oxidises over decades. Designers targeting heritage register use this specific value instead of #000000 because it prints softer and sits better against cream and gold.

Where this color traditionally appears

The canonical reference is the black ground of lai rod nam gilded manuscript cabinets, particularly the set in the Bangkok National Museum and at Wat Suthat. The technique uses black lacquer as the ground against which gold leaf stencilled imagery reads.

The color also appears on mother-of-pearl (muk) inlay furniture, on the black interior of temple shrine cabinets, on the deep-black sections of Rattanakosin-era royal palanquins, and on the standard matte finish of northern Thai celadon tea bowl bases. Contemporary Thai designers use it for premium packaging and editorial work.

What it means in Thai culture

Lacquer Black signals depth, craft, and traditional ceremonial material — it is not the color of mourning in Thai culture, which is white. The absence of a mourning association is critical for designers, because Western assumptions about black-as-funerary do not transfer.

The Royal Institute Dictionary documents rak dam specifically as the lacquer ground rather than the color black in general (dam is the generic term). Because the color is tied to ceremonial craft objects, it reads as serious and high-register rather than neutral or ordinary.

Using Lacquer Black in modern design

Lacquer Black works across premium categories — hospitality, packaging, editorial, luxury retail. Three concrete briefs:

• Premium Thai packaging — lacquer black field with gold or vermilion accent at 10–15%; the canonical formal Thai shelf register.
• Luxury hospitality identity — full-field black with cream typography; used across Aman and Rosewood properties in Thailand.
• Cultural publishing and museum catalogues — black ground for image reproduction; sits better than pure black because it carries the lacquer warmth of the source material.

It fails in contexts where lightness is the primary signal — children’s products, supermarket-tier food where black reads as off-category, and wellness where cream grounds are preferred.

Complementary colors

Three pairings carry Lacquer Black cleanly. With Temple Gold, the combination is lai rod nam reconstructed — the highest heritage register, used at 90/10 for luxury packaging and hospitality. With Thai Vermilion, the pairing is ceremonial and festive, used for cultural events, temple merchandise, and premium spice packaging. With Rice Paper, the combination is editorial and contemporary Thai — the highest-register neutral pair across publishing and identity.

Browse the full Thaitone system or open the color picker to build a palette.

Information verified as of April 2026

Sources

1. Documented in the Thaitone system as one of 168 traditional Thai colors.—Pittayamatee, P. (1988). Thai Colour. Amarin Printing, Bangkok. (accessed Apr 10, 2026)
2. Thai lacquer (rak) is harvested from the Gluta usitata tree and applied in multiple layers as the dark ground for lai rod nam gilded manuscript cabinets and mother-of-pearl inlay (muk) work.—Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture — Traditional Thai Lacquerware Techniques, 2017 (accessed Apr 10, 2026)