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orange · warm

#503f39

a dark, soft orange · warm · closest name: Dim Gray

Token name suggestion: Shadow Marmalade

RGB
80, 63, 57
HSL
16°, 17%, 27%
CMYK
0, 21, 29, 69
Luminance
0.0556

#503f39 is a dark soft orange, 16° on the wheel and 30/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (9.95:1). As text it scores 9.95:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Dim Gray, nearest Tailwind family is stone.

hsl(16 17% 27%)rgb(80 63 57)Base step 900AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #503f39 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#503f39
Hue
16°
orange
Saturation
17%
soft
Lightness
27%
dark
Brightness
31%
HSV value
Perceived
27%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.0556
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
30/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
9.95:1
Closest name
Dim Gray
ΔE2000 16.3
Chroma
9.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.384
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
stone
500 · ΔE 17.9
Web-safe
#663333
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue16° of 360°
Saturation17%
Lightness27%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #503f39.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool30% cool

Reads warm. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red31%
Green64%
Blue5%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#503f39
HEX (8-digit)#503f39ff
RGBrgb(80, 63, 57)
RGBArgba(80, 63, 57, 1)
HSLhsl(16, 17%, 27%)
HSV / HSBhsv(16, 29%, 31%)
HWBhwb(16 22% 69%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 21%, 29%, 69%)
LABlab(28.3 6.3 6.5)
LCHlch(28.3 9.1 45.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.384 0.026 40.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(5.82, 5.56, 4.64)
Decimal5259065
Display P3color(display-p3 0.314 0.247 0.224)
Web-safe#663333

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #503f39;
background-color: #503f39;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #503f39;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#503f39] bg-[#503f39]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #503f39;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.314, green: 0.247, blue: 0.224)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.314, green: 0.247, blue: 0.224, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#503F39</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF503F39)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF503F39)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(57, 63, 80)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(80, 63, 57)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(80, 63, 57)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 80, 63, 57)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.3137f, 0.2471f, 0.2235f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{80,63,57}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #503f39 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #503f39 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4A3B35, #E6DEDB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #503f39 h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #F8F7F6;
  --brand-100: #F2EFEE;
  --brand-200: #E3DCD9;
  --brand-300: #D0C2BD;
  --brand-400: #B9A49D;
  --brand-500: #A2867C;
  --brand-600: #8F7166;
  --brand-700: #775E55;
  --brand-800: #5F4B44;
  --brand-900: #503f39;
  --brand-950: #2C2320;
  --brand: #503f39;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #F9F7F6;
  --brand-border: #DDD3CF;
  --brand-hover: #3B2F2A;
  --brand-pressed: #261E1B;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #211A17;
    --brand-ink: #E6DEDB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F7F6',
        100: '#F2EFEE',
        200: '#E3DCD9',
        300: '#D0C2BD',
        400: '#B9A49D',
        500: '#A2867C',
        600: '#8F7166',
        700: '#775E55',
        800: '#5F4B44',
        900: '#503f39',
        950: '#2C2320',
        DEFAULT: '#503f39',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F7F6,
  '100': #F2EFEE,
  '200': #E3DCD9,
  '300': #D0C2BD,
  '400': #B9A49D,
  '500': #A2867C,
  '600': #8F7166,
  '700': #775E55,
  '800': #5F4B44,
  '900': #503f39,
  '950': #2C2320,
);
$brand-base: #503f39;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F7F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2EFEE", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E3DCD9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D0C2BD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#B9A49D", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#A2867C", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#8F7166", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#775E55", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#5F4B44", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#503f39", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2C2320", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#ffffff on #503f39 · 9.95:1
Use #ffffffAAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 9.95:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Aa
Black text · 2.11:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #503f39 as text scores 9.95:1 on white and 2.11:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F4F1F0 at 8.85:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#503f39 · 9.95:1
AA on whitealready passes
#503f39
The quick fox
#503f39 · 9.95:1
AAA on whitealready passes
#503f39
The quick fox
#8C6E64 · 4.53:1
AA on black+20% L
#8C6E64
The quick fox
#AA9188 · 7.11:1
AAA on black+33% L
#AA9188

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #503F39 is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#503f39 on white: 9.95:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#503f39 on black: 2.11:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #503f39 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #503f39.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White9.95:1AaAa
Slate 509.51:1AaAa
Slate 1009.08:1AaAa
Slate 2008.07:1AaAa
Slate 3006.70:1AaAa
Slate 4003.88:1AaAa
Slate 5002.09:1AaAa
Slate 6001.31:1AaAa
Slate 7001.04:1AaAa
Slate 8001.47:1AaAa
Slate 9001.79:1AaAa
Black2.11:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #434139
deuteranopia · #474439
tritanopia · #543D3D

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #503f39 is pinned to step 900; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F8F7F6
#F2EFEE
#E3DCD9
#D0C2BD
#B9A49D
#A2867C
#8F7166
#775E55
#5F4B44
#503f39
#2C2320
Base = 900Lightest = 50 · #F8F7F6Darkest = 950 · #2C2320Text step on white = 700
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.006 40.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.010 40.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.016 40.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.020 40.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.024 40.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.026 40.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.026 40.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.024 40.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.022 40.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.018 40.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.014 40.3);
}

Colors that work with #503f39

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#F9F7F6
Tinted page background
Border#DDD3CF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#866A5F
Captions on the surface
Accent#365353
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4A3B35
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F4F1F0
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#211A17
Dark-mode background
Hover#3B2F2A
One step down in lightness
Pressed#261E1B
Two steps down
Disabled#927368
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#64453A
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #503f39

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text on black or near-black surfaces
  • Black text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

friendlyenergeticaffordablesocial

Orange is red with the aggression taken out — approachable, active, and strongly associated with buying and doing.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

Hard to make feel premium, and it collides with the "caution" band in status systems.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight73/100
  • TemperatureWarm
  • ApproachabilityHigh

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#394A50
Analogous left#50393F
Analogous right#504B39
Split-complement 1#39504B
Split-complement 2#393F50
Triadic 1#39503F
Triadic 2#3F3950
Tetradic#3F5039
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°16°

#503f39 sits at 16°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red31.4%
Green24.7%
Blue22.4%
R · 0–255
80
0x50
G · 0–255
63
0x3f
B · 0–255
57
0x39

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta21.2%
Yellow28.8%
Key (black)68.6%

Total ink coverage is 119%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#503f39 text on a black background

contrast 2.11:1

Card sample

#503f39 text on a white background

contrast 9.95:1

Card sample

#503f39 on grey

9.08:1

#503f39 on its own surface

9.31:1

#503f39 on its dark surface

1.72:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #503f39;
Background color
Panel with #503f39 background
background-color: #503f39;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #503f39;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(80, 63, 57, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(80, 63, 57, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #503f39;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #503f39, #504E39);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #503f39, #4C5039);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #503f39;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #503f39;
caret-color: #503f39;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #503f39;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F4F1F0;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #503f39;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#503f39 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #503f39 over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(80, 63, 57, 0.5)
rgb(80 63 57 / 50%)
#503f3980
hsl(16 17% 27% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #503f39 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#503f391a#EEECEB
20%#503f3933#DCD9D7
40%#503f3966#B9B2B0
60%#503f3999#968C88
80%#503f39cc#736561

Gradients from #503f39

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #745B53, #503f39 45%, #4A3B35);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #503f39, #3E3E2C);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #503f39, #394A50);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #86695F 0%, #503f39 45%, #4A3B35 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F7F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #6E4E58 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #625E46 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4A3B35 0%, transparent 65%), #503f39;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #503f39

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#503f39 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
E-commerceFood deliveryLogisticsCreator tools
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

On screens

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Too dim on dark surfaces at 2.11:1 — lift it to #8C6E64 for body text, or reserve it for fills.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#503f39, answered

What color is #503f39?

#503f39 is a dark soft orange, closest to Dim Gray (ΔE2000 16.3). It sits at 16° on the hue wheel with 17% saturation and 27% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #503f39?

rgb(80, 63, 57) — 80 red, 63 green and 57 blue out of 255, or 31.4% / 24.7% / 22.4% by channel.

What is #503f39 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(16, 17%, 27%) and hsv(16, 29%, 31%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #503f39 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.0556 and perceived brightness is 27%, so white text on it reaches 9.95:1.

Should I use black or white text on #503f39?

White. It scores 9.95:1 against #503f39, versus 2.11:1 for black — AAA at any size.

Is #503f39 accessible on a white background?

#503f39 on white scores 9.95:1, which clears AAA at every size.

What is the complementary color of #503f39?

#394A50 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #39504B and #393F50, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #503f39?

For interface work: #F9F7F6 as the surface, #DDD3CF for borders, #866A5F for secondary text, #365353 as an accent and #4A3B35 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #50393F and #504B39 stays calm, while #394A50 is the loudest partner.

What is #503f39 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 21%, 29%, 69%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #503f39 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 30 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #504339; nudged cooler, #51383A.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #503f39?

The stone family — its 500 step is #78716c, ΔE2000 17.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #503f39 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #503f39 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#503f39] or text-[#503f39], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #503f39 with 50% opacity?

rgba(80, 63, 57, 0.5), or #503f3980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #A89F9C; over black, #28201D.

Is #503f39 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #663333, ΔE2000 12.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #503f39 mean?

As a orange, it reads friendly, energetic, affordable. Orange is red with the aggression taken out — approachable, active, and strongly associated with buying and doing. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #503f39?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #745B53, #503f39 45%, #4A3B35). For more colour, a short hue run to #3E3E2C keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #503f39 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #503f39 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.