50% gray isn't a medium gray, it is actually a fairly light gray. On an average PC monitor it is rgb(186,186,186) (assuming sRGB). Photographers often use 18% or 12.5% gray (0.18 or 0.125 albedo) as a medium gray depending on the tonal range they're working with -- these values are the geometric average of white and black in photographs with five and six stops of range, respectively.
Then there's the issue of print versus the web. In print, you can call a color neutral because it reflects light which is the same color as the illuminant. I'm skeptical about "neutral gray" on a website, viewed in a variety of different environments with a variety of different backlights. Fill your screen with pure white, look at it on a sunny day and then again late at night. You'll find it's shifted from a yellowish white to a bluish white.
I'm also skeptical about a mathematical formula for "emotionally flat colors". It seems I could choose a bright red, yellow, and blue and get them to center on neutral gray, and use that for my american hot dog stand. Then I could take a few shades of black and white, centered on neutral gray again, and use them to paint the corporate office. Neither seems emotionally flat to me.
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50% gray isn't a medium gray, it is actually a fairly light gray. On an average PC monitor it is rgb(186,186,186) (assuming sRGB). Photographers often use 18% or 12.5% gray (0.18 or 0.125 albedo) as a medium gray depending on the tonal range they're working with -- these values are the geometric average of white and black in photographs with five and six stops of range, respectively.
Then there's the issue of print versus the web. In print, you can call a color neutral because it reflects light which is the same color as the illuminant. I'm skeptical about "neutral gray" on a website, viewed in a variety of different environments with a variety of different backlights. Fill your screen with pure white, look at it on a sunny day and then again late at night. You'll find it's shifted from a yellowish white to a bluish white.
I'm also skeptical about a mathematical formula for "emotionally flat colors". It seems I could choose a bright red, yellow, and blue and get them to center on neutral gray, and use that for my american hot dog stand. Then I could take a few shades of black and white, centered on neutral gray again, and use them to paint the corporate office. Neither seems emotionally flat to me.