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red · warm

#ab515b

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

Token name suggestion: Atlas Cardinal

RGB
171, 81, 91
HSL
353°, 36%, 49%
CMYK
0, 53, 47, 33
Luminance
0.1530

#ab515b is a balanced soft red, 353° on the wheel and 20/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (5.17:1). As text it scores 5.17:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Indian Red, nearest Tailwind family is rose.

hsl(353 36% 49%)rgb(171 81 91)Base step 600AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ab515b is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ab515b
Hue
353°
red
Saturation
36%
soft
Lightness
49%
balanced
Brightness
67%
HSV value
Perceived
46%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1530
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
20/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
5.17:1
Closest name
Indian Red
ΔE2000 9.2
Chroma
39.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.549
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
rose
500 · ΔE 13.6
Web-safe
#996666
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue353° of 360°
Saturation36%
Lightness49%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ab515b.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool20% 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
Red57%
Green38%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#ab515b
HEX (8-digit)#ab515bff
RGBrgb(171, 81, 91)
RGBArgba(171, 81, 91, 1)
HSLhsl(353, 36%, 49%)
HSV / HSBhsv(353, 53%, 67%)
HWBhwb(353 32% 33%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 53%, 47%, 33%)
LABlab(46.0 37.8 11.9)
LCHlch(46.0 39.6 17.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.549 0.118 14.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(21.63, 15.30, 11.71)
Decimal11227483
Display P3color(display-p3 0.671 0.318 0.357)
Web-safe#996666

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ab515b;
background-color: #ab515b;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ab515b;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ab515b] bg-[#ab515b]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ab515b;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.671, green: 0.318, blue: 0.357)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.671, green: 0.318, blue: 0.357, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AB515B</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAB515B)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAB515B)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(91, 81, 171)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(171, 81, 91)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(171, 81, 91)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 171, 81, 91)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6706f, 0.3176f, 0.3569f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{171,81,91}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ab515b 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ab515b 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#57292E, #EBD5D8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ab515b 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: #F9F5F6;
  --brand-100: #F4EBEC;
  --brand-200: #E8D3D6;
  --brand-300: #DBB3B7;
  --brand-400: #C98D94;
  --brand-500: #B76770;
  --brand-600: #ab515b;
  --brand-700: #8A424A;
  --brand-800: #6F343B;
  --brand-900: #51292E;
  --brand-950: #331A1C;
  --brand: #ab515b;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF5F5;
  --brand-border: #E5C8CB;
  --brand-hover: #93464E;
  --brand-pressed: #7A3A41;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241416;
    --brand-ink: #EBD5D8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F5F6',
        100: '#F4EBEC',
        200: '#E8D3D6',
        300: '#DBB3B7',
        400: '#C98D94',
        500: '#B76770',
        600: '#ab515b',
        700: '#8A424A',
        800: '#6F343B',
        900: '#51292E',
        950: '#331A1C',
        DEFAULT: '#ab515b',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F5F6,
  '100': #F4EBEC,
  '200': #E8D3D6,
  '300': #DBB3B7,
  '400': #C98D94,
  '500': #B76770,
  '600': #ab515b,
  '700': #8A424A,
  '800': #6F343B,
  '900': #51292E,
  '950': #331A1C,
);
$brand-base: #ab515b;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F5F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F4EBEC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E8D3D6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#DBB3B7", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C98D94", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#B76770", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#ab515b", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#8A424A", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6F343B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#51292E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#331A1C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ab515b · 5.17:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 5.17:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.06:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #ab515b as text scores 5.17:1 on white and 4.06:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F7EEEF at 4.54:1.

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
#ab515b · 5.17:1
AA on whitealready passes
#ab515b
The quick fox
#8C424A · 7.02:1
AAA on white−9% L
#8C424A
The quick fox
#B15A64 · 4.52:1
AA on black+3% L
#B15A64
The quick fox
#C5848B · 7.05:1
AAA on black+15% L
#C5848B

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AB515B 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
#ab515b on white: 5.17:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ab515b on black: 4.06:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ab515b as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ab515b.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White5.17:1AaAa
Slate 504.94:1AaAa
Slate 1004.72:1AaAa
Slate 2004.20:1AaAa
Slate 3003.48:1AaAa
Slate 4002.02:1AaAa
Slate 5001.09:1AaAa
Slate 6001.46:1AaAa
Slate 7002.00:1AaAa
Slate 8002.83:1AaAa
Slate 9003.45:1AaAa
Black4.06:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #64625B
deuteranopia · #7B7459
tritanopia · #B94555

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. #ab515b is pinned to step 600; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9F5F6
#F4EBEC
#E8D3D6
#DBB3B7
#C98D94
#B76770
#ab515b
#8A424A
#6F343B
#51292E
#331A1C
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #F9F5F6Darkest = 950 · #331A1CText 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 0.030 14.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.047 14.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.071 14.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.092 14.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.109 14.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.118 14.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.118 14.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.111 14.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.099 14.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.083 14.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.065 14.9);
}

Colors that work with #ab515b

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#FAF5F5
Tinted page background
Border#E5C8CB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B4B54
Captions on the surface
Accent#3E8E71
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#57292E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F7EEEF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241416
Dark-mode background
Hover#93464E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7A3A41
Two steps down
Disabled#C6A6AA
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BE525E
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 #ab515b

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • 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
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.

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
  • Weight51/100
  • 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#51ABA1
Analogous left#AB5188
Analogous right#AB7451
Split-complement 1#51AB74
Split-complement 2#5188AB
Triadic 1#5BAB51
Triadic 2#515BAB
Tetradic#88AB51
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°353°

#ab515b sits at 353°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.1%
Green31.8%
Blue35.7%
R · 0–255
171
0xab
G · 0–255
81
0x51
B · 0–255
91
0x5b

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta52.6%
Yellow46.8%
Key (black)32.9%

Total ink coverage is 132%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ab515b text on a black background

contrast 4.06:1

Card sample

#ab515b text on a white background

contrast 5.17:1

Card sample

#ab515b on grey

4.72:1

#ab515b on its own surface

4.79:1

#ab515b on its dark surface

3.42:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ab515b;
Background color
Panel with #ab515b background
background-color: #ab515b;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ab515b;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(171, 81, 91, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(171, 81, 91, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ab515b;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ab515b, #AB8351);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ab515b, #AB9951);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ab515b;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ab515b;
caret-color: #ab515b;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ab515b;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F7EEEF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ab515b;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ab515b 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ab515b 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(171, 81, 91, 0.5)
rgb(171 81 91 / 50%)
#ab515b80
hsl(353 36% 49% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ab515b 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ab515b1a#F7EEEF
20%#ab515b33#EEDCDE
40%#ab515b66#DDB9BD
60%#ab515b99#CD979D
80%#ab515bcc#BC747C

Gradients from #ab515b

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, #C07981, #ab515b 45%, #57292E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ab515b, #967A47);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ab515b, #51ABA1);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CA8E95 0%, #ab515b 45%, #57292E 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF5F5, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #BC73A6 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B68B65 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #57292E 0%, transparent 65%), #ab515b;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ab515b

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.

#ab515b 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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 4.06:1 — lift it to #B15A64 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.

#ab515b, answered

What color is #ab515b?

#ab515b is a balanced soft red, closest to Indian Red (ΔE2000 9.2). It sits at 353° on the hue wheel with 36% saturation and 49% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ab515b?

rgb(171, 81, 91) — 171 red, 81 green and 91 blue out of 255, or 67.1% / 31.8% / 35.7% by channel.

What is #ab515b in HSL and HSV?

hsl(353, 36%, 49%) and hsv(353, 53%, 67%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ab515b a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1530 and perceived brightness is 46%, so white text on it reaches 5.17:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ab515b?

White. It scores 5.17:1 against #ab515b, versus 4.06:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #ab515b accessible on a white background?

#ab515b on white scores 5.17:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #ab515b?

#51ABA1 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #51AB74 and #5188AB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ab515b?

For interface work: #FAF5F5 as the surface, #E5C8CB for borders, #9B4B54 for secondary text, #3E8E71 as an accent and #57292E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AB5188 and #AB7451 stays calm, while #51ABA1 is the loudest partner.

What is #ab515b in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 53%, 47%, 33%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ab515b warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 20 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AB6851; nudged cooler, #AD4E7C.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ab515b?

The rose family — its 500 step is #f43f5e, ΔE2000 13.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ab515b as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ab515b in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ab515b] or text-[#ab515b], 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 #ab515b with 50% opacity?

rgba(171, 81, 91, 0.5), or #ab515b80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D5A8AD; over black, #56292E.

Is #ab515b a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #996666, ΔE2000 8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ab515b 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 #ab515b?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C07981, #ab515b 45%, #57292E). For more colour, a short hue run to #967A47 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ab515b in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ab515b at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.