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red · warm

#a96370

a balanced, soft red · warm · closest name: Indian Red

Token name suggestion: True Cherry

RGB
169, 99, 112
HSL
349°, 29%, 53%
CMYK
0, 41, 34, 34
Luminance
0.1853

#a96370 is a balanced soft red, 349° on the wheel and 28/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (4.71:1). As text it scores 4.46:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Indian Red, nearest Tailwind family is rose.

hsl(349 29% 53%)rgb(169 99 112)Base step 500AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #a96370 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#a96370
Hue
349°
red
Saturation
29%
soft
Lightness
53%
balanced
Brightness
66%
HSV value
Perceived
49%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1853
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
28/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
4.71:1
Closest name
Indian Red
ΔE2000 10.5
Chroma
30.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.582
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
rose
500 · ΔE 14.9
Web-safe
#996666
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue349° of 360°
Saturation29%
Lightness53%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #a96370.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool28% 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
Red46%
Green48%
Blue6%

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

Every format

HEX#a96370
HEX (8-digit)#a96370ff
RGBrgb(169, 99, 112)
RGBArgba(169, 99, 112, 1)
HSLhsl(349, 29%, 53%)
HSV / HSBhsv(349, 41%, 66%)
HWBhwb(349 39% 34%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 41%, 34%, 34%)
LABlab(50.1 29.9 5.0)
LCHlch(50.1 30.3 9.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.582 0.091 8.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(23.75, 18.53, 17.65)
Decimal11101040
Display P3color(display-p3 0.663 0.388 0.439)
Web-safe#996666

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #a96370;
background-color: #a96370;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #a96370;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#a96370] bg-[#a96370]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #a96370;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.663, green: 0.388, blue: 0.439)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.663, green: 0.388, blue: 0.439, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#A96370</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFA96370)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFA96370)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(112, 99, 169)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(169, 99, 112)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(169, 99, 112)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 169, 99, 112)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6627f, 0.3882f, 0.4392f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{169,99,112}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #a96370 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #a96370 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#522D34, #E9D8DB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #a96370 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: #F9F6F6;
  --brand-100: #F3ECEE;
  --brand-200: #E6D5D9;
  --brand-300: #D7B7BD;
  --brand-400: #C3939C;
  --brand-500: #a96370;
  --brand-600: #9E5764;
  --brand-700: #834953;
  --brand-800: #693A43;
  --brand-900: #4D2D33;
  --brand-950: #301C20;
  --brand: #a96370;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF5F6;
  --brand-border: #E2CACF;
  --brand-hover: #96525F;
  --brand-pressed: #7F4650;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241417;
    --brand-ink: #E9D8DB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F6F6',
        100: '#F3ECEE',
        200: '#E6D5D9',
        300: '#D7B7BD',
        400: '#C3939C',
        500: '#a96370',
        600: '#9E5764',
        700: '#834953',
        800: '#693A43',
        900: '#4D2D33',
        950: '#301C20',
        DEFAULT: '#a96370',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F6F6,
  '100': #F3ECEE,
  '200': #E6D5D9,
  '300': #D7B7BD,
  '400': #C3939C,
  '500': #a96370,
  '600': #9E5764,
  '700': #834953,
  '800': #693A43,
  '900': #4D2D33,
  '950': #301C20,
);
$brand-base: #a96370;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F6F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3ECEE", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E6D5D9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D7B7BD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C3939C", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#a96370", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9E5764", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#834953", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#693A43", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4D2D33", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#301C20", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #a96370 · 4.71:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.46:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.71:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #a96370 as text scores 4.46:1 on white and 4.71:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #522D34 at 2.64:1.

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
#A7606D · 4.63:1
AA on white−1% L
#A7606D
The quick fox
#824852 · 7.00:1
AAA on white−13% L
#824852
The quick fox
#a96370 · 4.71:1
AA on blackalready passes
#a96370
The quick fox
#BD8791 · 7.04:1
AAA on black+11% L
#BD8791

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A96370 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
#a96370 on white: 4.46:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#a96370 on black: 4.71:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #a96370 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #a96370.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.46:1AaAa
Slate 504.27:1AaAa
Slate 1004.07:1AaAa
Slate 2003.62:1AaAa
Slate 3003.01:1AaAa
Slate 4001.74:1AaAa
Slate 5001.07:1AaAa
Slate 6001.70:1AaAa
Slate 7002.32:1AaAa
Slate 8003.28:1AaAa
Slate 9004.00:1AaAa
Black4.71:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #6F6F70
deuteranopia · #807C6F
tritanopia · #B55D68

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. #a96370 is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9F6F6
#F3ECEE
#E6D5D9
#D7B7BD
#C3939C
#a96370
#9E5764
#834953
#693A43
#4D2D33
#301C20
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F6F6Darkest = 950 · #301C20Text step on white = 600
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 0.023 8.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.037 8.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.055 8.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.071 8.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.084 8.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.091 8.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.091 8.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.086 8.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.077 8.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.064 8.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.050 8.3);
}

Colors that work with #a96370

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#FAF5F6
Tinted page background
Border#E2CACF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#94525E
Captions on the surface
Accent#44886A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#522D34
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6EFF0
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241417
Dark-mode background
Hover#96525F
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7F4650
Two steps down
Disabled#CCB0B5
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BB6575
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 #a96370

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
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Small text on white — under 4.5:1
  • 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 #522D34
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.

urgentappetisingboldphysical

Red arrives before the rest of the page does. It raises attention and appetite, which is why it runs food, sport and clearance pricing.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

It is also the universal error colour. Use it as a brand accent and users may read a warning that is not there.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight48/100
  • 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#63A99C
Analogous left#A96393
Analogous right#A97963
Split-complement 1#63A979
Split-complement 2#6393A9
Triadic 1#70A963
Triadic 2#6370A9
Tetradic#93A963
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°349°

#a96370 sits at 349°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red66.3%
Green38.8%
Blue43.9%
R · 0–255
169
0xa9
G · 0–255
99
0x63
B · 0–255
112
0x70

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta41.4%
Yellow33.7%
Key (black)33.7%

Total ink coverage is 109%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#a96370 text on a black background

contrast 4.71:1

Card sample

#a96370 text on a white background

contrast 4.46:1

Card sample

#a96370 on grey

4.07:1

#a96370 on its own surface

4.13:1

#a96370 on its dark surface

3.96:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #a96370;
Background color
Panel with #a96370 background
background-color: #a96370;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #a96370;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(169, 99, 112, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(169, 99, 112, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #a96370;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a96370, #A98563);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a96370, #A99663);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #a96370;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #a96370;
caret-color: #a96370;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #a96370;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6EFF0;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #a96370;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#a96370 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #a96370 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(169, 99, 112, 0.5)
rgb(169 99 112 / 50%)
#a9637080
hsl(349 29% 53% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #a96370 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#a963701a#F6EFF1
20%#a9637033#EEE0E2
40%#a9637066#DDC1C6
60%#a9637099#CBA1A9
80%#a96370cc#BA828D

Gradients from #a96370

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, #BF8A94, #a96370 45%, #522D34);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #a96370, #997B54);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #a96370, #63A99C);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CA9EA6 0%, #a96370 45%, #522D34 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF5F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #BB84AE 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B48F77 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #522D34 0%, transparent 65%), #a96370;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #a96370

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.

#a96370 in the real world

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

Industries
Food and drinkEntertainmentRetailSport
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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 4.71:1.

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.

#a96370, answered

What color is #a96370?

#a96370 is a balanced soft red, closest to Indian Red (ΔE2000 10.5). It sits at 349° on the hue wheel with 29% saturation and 53% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #a96370?

rgb(169, 99, 112) — 169 red, 99 green and 112 blue out of 255, or 66.3% / 38.8% / 43.9% by channel.

What is #a96370 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(349, 29%, 53%) and hsv(349, 41%, 66%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #a96370 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.1853 and perceived brightness is 49%, so black text on it reaches 4.71:1.

Should I use black or white text on #a96370?

Black. It scores 4.71:1 against #a96370, versus 4.46:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #a96370 accessible on a white background?

#a96370 on white scores 4.46:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #A7606D to reach 4.5:1, or #824852 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #a96370?

#63A99C sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #63A979 and #6393A9, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #a96370?

For interface work: #FAF5F6 as the surface, #E2CACF for borders, #94525E for secondary text, #44886A as an accent and #522D34 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #A96393 and #A97963 stays calm, while #63A99C is the loudest partner.

What is #a96370 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 41%, 34%, 34%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #a96370 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 28 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #A97063; nudged cooler, #AB608A.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #a96370?

The rose family — its 500 step is #f43f5e, ΔE2000 14.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #a96370 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #a96370 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#a96370] or text-[#a96370], 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 #a96370 with 50% opacity?

rgba(169, 99, 112, 0.5), or #a9637080 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D4B1B8; over black, #553238.

Is #a96370 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #996666, ΔE2000 5.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #a96370 mean?

As a red, it reads urgent, appetising, bold. Red arrives before the rest of the page does. It raises attention and appetite, which is why it runs food, sport and clearance pricing. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #a96370?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #BF8A94, #a96370 45%, #522D34). For more colour, a short hue run to #997B54 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #a96370 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #a96370 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.