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green · warm

#78a215

a dark, electric green · warm · closest name: Olive Drab

Token name suggestion: Shadow Jade

RGB
120, 162, 21
HSL
78°, 77%, 36%
CMYK
26, 0, 87, 37
Luminance
0.2989

#78a215 is a dark electric green, 78° on the wheel and 40/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (6.98:1). As text it scores 3.01:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Olive Drab, nearest Tailwind family is lime.

hsl(78 77% 36%)rgb(120 162 21)Base step 800AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #78a215 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#78a215
Hue
78°
green
Saturation
77%
electric
Lightness
36%
dark
Brightness
64%
HSV value
Perceived
55%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2989
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
40/100 cool
Color family
Green
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
6.98:1
Closest name
Olive Drab
ΔE2000 7
Chroma
68.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.657
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
lime
500 · ΔE 11.5
Web-safe
#669900
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue78° of 360°
Saturation77%
Lightness36%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #78a215.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool40% 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
Red13%
Green86%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#78a215
HEX (8-digit)#78a215ff
RGBrgb(120, 162, 21)
RGBArgba(120, 162, 21, 1)
HSLhsl(78, 77%, 36%)
HSV / HSBhsv(78, 87%, 64%)
HWBhwb(78 8% 36%)
CMYKcmyk(26%, 0%, 87%, 37%)
LABlab(61.6 -33.0 60.3)
LCHlch(61.6 68.8 118.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.657 0.162 126.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(20.80, 29.89, 5.38)
Decimal7905813
Display P3color(display-p3 0.471 0.635 0.082)
Web-safe#669900

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #78a215;
background-color: #78a215;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #78a215;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#78a215] bg-[#78a215]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #78a215;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.471, green: 0.635, blue: 0.082)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.471, green: 0.635, blue: 0.082, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#78A215</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFF78A215)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFF78A215)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(21, 162, 120)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(120, 162, 21)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(120, 162, 21)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 120, 162, 21)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.4706f, 0.6353f, 0.0824f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{120,162,21}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #78a215 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #78a215 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#54710F, #E6EED3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #78a215 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: #F9FCF3;
  --brand-100: #F3F9E7;
  --brand-200: #E7F4C7;
  --brand-300: #D8F29C;
  --brand-400: #C5EC6A;
  --brand-500: #B2E538;
  --brand-600: #A0D91C;
  --brand-700: #86B517;
  --brand-800: #78a215;
  --brand-900: #4F6912;
  --brand-950: #31410B;
  --brand: #78a215;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9FAF4;
  --brand-border: #DFEDC0;
  --brand-hover: #618211;
  --brand-pressed: #49630D;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1F2414;
    --brand-ink: #E6EED3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9FCF3',
        100: '#F3F9E7',
        200: '#E7F4C7',
        300: '#D8F29C',
        400: '#C5EC6A',
        500: '#B2E538',
        600: '#A0D91C',
        700: '#86B517',
        800: '#78a215',
        900: '#4F6912',
        950: '#31410B',
        DEFAULT: '#78a215',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9FCF3,
  '100': #F3F9E7,
  '200': #E7F4C7,
  '300': #D8F29C,
  '400': #C5EC6A,
  '500': #B2E538,
  '600': #A0D91C,
  '700': #86B517,
  '800': #78a215,
  '900': #4F6912,
  '950': #31410B,
);
$brand-base: #78a215;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9FCF3", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3F9E7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E7F4C7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D8F29C", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C5EC6A", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#B2E538", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#A0D91C", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#86B517", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#78a215", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4F6912", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#31410B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#000000", "$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#000000 on #78a215 · 6.98:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 3.01:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 6.98:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #78a215 as text scores 3.01:1 on white and 6.98:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #54710F at 1.86:1.

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
#5D7E10 · 4.71:1
AA on white−8% L
#5D7E10
The quick fox
#465E0C · 7.33:1
AAA on white−15% L
#465E0C
The quick fox
#78a215 · 6.98:1
AA on blackalready passes
#78a215
The quick fox
#7BA716 · 7.38:1
AAA on black+1% L
#7BA716

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #78A215 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
#78a215 on white: 3.01:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#78a215 on black: 6.98:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #78a215 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #78a215.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White3.01:1AaAa
Slate 502.88:1AaAa
Slate 1002.75:1AaAa
Slate 2002.44:1AaAa
Slate 3002.03:1AaAa
Slate 4001.17:1AaAa
Slate 5001.58:1AaAa
Slate 6002.52:1AaAa
Slate 7003.44:1AaAa
Slate 8004.86:1AaAa
Slate 9005.93:1AaAa
Black6.98:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #AB9600
deuteranopia · #A59427
tritanopia · #7D9A8A

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. #78a215 is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9FCF3
#F3F9E7
#E7F4C7
#D8F29C
#C5EC6A
#B2E538
#A0D91C
#86B517
#78a215
#4F6912
#31410B
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #F9FCF3Darkest = 950 · #31410BText step on white = 900
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 0.041 126.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.065 126.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.097 126.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.126 126.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.149 126.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.162 126.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.162 126.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.152 126.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.136 126.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.113 126.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.089 126.3);
}

Colors that work with #78a215

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

Text on it#000000
Black wins here
Surface#F9FAF4
Tinted page background
Border#DFEDC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#839B4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#1911A6
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#54710F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6FCE8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1F2414
Dark-mode background
Hover#618211
One step down in lightness
Pressed#49630D
Two steps down
Disabled#9DAB7C
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#89BE0D
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 #78a215

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

Works well for
  • Headings from 24px up on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • Status meaning — pair it with an icon or label, never colour alone
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
24px / 18.66px bold
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #54710F
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.

safegrowingnaturalpermissive

Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

Red/green pairs are the most common colour-blindness failure — never let the two carry meaning alone.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight64/100
  • 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#3F15A2
Analogous left#A28615
Analogous right#31A215
Split-complement 1#1531A2
Split-complement 2#8615A2
Triadic 1#1578A2
Triadic 2#A21578
Tetradic#15A286
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°78°

#78a215 sits at 78°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red47.1%
Green63.5%
Blue8.2%
R · 0–255
120
0x78
G · 0–255
162
0xa2
B · 0–255
21
0x15

CMYK percentages

Cyan25.9%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow87.0%
Key (black)36.5%

Total ink coverage is 149%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#78a215 text on a black background

contrast 6.98:1

Card sample

#78a215 text on a white background

contrast 3.01:1

Card sample

#78a215 on grey

2.75:1

#78a215 on its own surface

2.87:1

#78a215 on its dark surface

5.28:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #78a215;
Background color
Panel with #78a215 background
background-color: #78a215;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #78a215;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(120, 162, 21, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(120, 162, 21, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #78a215;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #78a215, #1AA215);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #78a215, #15A233);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #78a215;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #78a215;
caret-color: #78a215;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #78a215;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6FCE8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #78a215;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#78a215 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #78a215 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(120, 162, 21, 0.5)
rgb(120 162 21 / 50%)
#78a21580
hsl(78 77% 36% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #78a215 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#78a2151a#F2F6E8
20%#78a21533#E4ECD0
40%#78a21566#C9DAA1
60%#78a21599#AEC773
80%#78a215cc#93B544

Gradients from #78a215

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, #A0D81C, #78a215 45%, #54710F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #78a215, #128717);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #78a215, #3F15A2);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #AEE42F 0%, #78a215 45%, #54710F 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9FAF4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CF9C1B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #2CBD19 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #54710F 0%, transparent 65%), #78a215;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #78a215

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.

#78a215 in the real world

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

Industries
SustainabilityFinanceHealth and wellnessAgriculture
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

On screens

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

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 6.98:1.

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.

#78a215, answered

What color is #78a215?

#78a215 is a dark electric green, closest to Olive Drab (ΔE2000 7). It sits at 78° on the hue wheel with 77% saturation and 36% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #78a215?

rgb(120, 162, 21) — 120 red, 162 green and 21 blue out of 255, or 47.1% / 63.5% / 8.2% by channel.

What is #78a215 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(78, 77%, 36%) and hsv(78, 87%, 64%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #78a215 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2989 and perceived brightness is 55%, so black text on it reaches 6.98:1.

Should I use black or white text on #78a215?

Black. It scores 6.98:1 against #78a215, versus 3.01:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #78a215 accessible on a white background?

#78a215 on white scores 3.01:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #5D7E10 to reach 4.5:1, or #465E0C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #78a215?

#3F15A2 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #1531A2 and #8615A2, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #78a215?

For interface work: #F9FAF4 as the surface, #DFEDC0 for borders, #839B4B for secondary text, #1911A6 as an accent and #54710F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A28615 and #31A215 stays calm, while #3F15A2 is the loudest partner.

What is #78a215 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(26%, 0%, 87%, 37%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #78a215 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 40 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A29815; nudged cooler, #44A413.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #78a215?

The lime family — its 500 step is #84cc16, ΔE2000 11.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #78a215 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #78a215 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#78a215] or text-[#78a215], 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 #78a215 with 50% opacity?

rgba(120, 162, 21, 0.5), or #78a21580 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #BCD18A; over black, #3C510B.

Is #78a215 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #669900, ΔE2000 3.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #78a215 mean?

As a green, it reads safe, growing, natural. Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #78a215?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #A0D81C, #78a215 45%, #54710F). For more colour, a short hue run to #128717 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #78a215 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #78a215 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.