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orange · warm

#ad9b7f

a balanced, soft orange · warm · closest name: Tan

Token name suggestion: Atlas Marmalade

RGB
173, 155, 127
HSL
37°, 22%, 59%
CMYK
0, 10, 27, 32
Luminance
0.3386

#ad9b7f is a balanced soft orange, 37° on the wheel and 22/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.77:1). As text it scores 2.70:1 on white — use #857255 instead. Nearest name is Tan, nearest Tailwind family is stone.

hsl(37 22% 59%)rgb(173 155 127)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ad9b7f is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ad9b7f
Hue
37°
orange
Saturation
22%
soft
Lightness
59%
balanced
Brightness
68%
HSV value
Perceived
62%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3386
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
22/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
7.77:1
Closest name
Tan
ΔE2000 9
Chroma
17.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.698
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
stone
500 · ΔE 18
Web-safe
#999966
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue37° of 360°
Saturation22%
Lightness59%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ad9b7f.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool22% 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
Red26%
Green69%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#ad9b7f
HEX (8-digit)#ad9b7fff
RGBrgb(173, 155, 127)
RGBArgba(173, 155, 127, 1)
HSLhsl(37, 22%, 59%)
HSV / HSBhsv(37, 27%, 68%)
HWBhwb(37 50% 32%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 10%, 27%, 32%)
LABlab(64.8 2.2 17.1)
LCHlch(64.8 17.3 82.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.698 0.044 78.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(32.79, 33.86, 24.88)
Decimal11377535
Display P3color(display-p3 0.678 0.608 0.498)
Web-safe#999966

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ad9b7f;
background-color: #ad9b7f;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ad9b7f;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ad9b7f] bg-[#ad9b7f]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ad9b7f;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.678, green: 0.608, blue: 0.498)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.678, green: 0.608, blue: 0.498, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AD9B7F</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAD9B7F)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAD9B7F)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(127, 155, 173)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(173, 155, 127)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(173, 155, 127)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 173, 155, 127)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6784f, 0.6078f, 0.4980f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{173,155,127}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ad9b7f 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ad9b7f 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4E4332, #E7E2DA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ad9b7f 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: #F9F8F6;
  --brand-100: #F2F0ED;
  --brand-200: #E4DFD7;
  --brand-300: #D3CABB;
  --brand-400: #BDAF98;
  --brand-500: #ad9b7f;
  --brand-600: #958060;
  --brand-700: #7C6B50;
  --brand-800: #635540;
  --brand-900: #4A4031;
  --brand-950: #2E281F;
  --brand: #ad9b7f;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9F8F6;
  --brand-border: #DFD8CD;
  --brand-hover: #9F8A69;
  --brand-pressed: #8B7859;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #221D16;
    --brand-ink: #E7E2DA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F8F6',
        100: '#F2F0ED',
        200: '#E4DFD7',
        300: '#D3CABB',
        400: '#BDAF98',
        500: '#ad9b7f',
        600: '#958060',
        700: '#7C6B50',
        800: '#635540',
        900: '#4A4031',
        950: '#2E281F',
        DEFAULT: '#ad9b7f',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F8F6,
  '100': #F2F0ED,
  '200': #E4DFD7,
  '300': #D3CABB,
  '400': #BDAF98,
  '500': #ad9b7f,
  '600': #958060,
  '700': #7C6B50,
  '800': #635540,
  '900': #4A4031,
  '950': #2E281F,
);
$brand-base: #ad9b7f;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F8F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2F0ED", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E4DFD7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D3CABB", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#BDAF98", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#ad9b7f", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#958060", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7C6B50", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#635540", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4A4031", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2E281F", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ad9b7f · 7.77:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.70:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.77:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ad9b7f as text scores 2.70:1 on white and 7.77:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #4E4332 at 3.58:1.

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
#857255 · 4.63:1
AA on white−16% L
#857255
The quick fox
#63553F · 7.24:1
AAA on white−27% L
#63553F
The quick fox
#ad9b7f · 7.77:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ad9b7f
The quick fox
#ad9b7f · 7.77:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ad9b7f

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A59172 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
#ad9b7f on white: 2.70:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ad9b7f on black: 7.77:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ad9b7f as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ad9b7f.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.70:1AaAa
Slate 502.58:1AaAa
Slate 1002.47:1AaAa
Slate 2002.19:1AaAa
Slate 3001.82:1AaAa
Slate 4001.05:1AaAa
Slate 5001.76:1AaAa
Slate 6002.80:1AaAa
Slate 7003.83:1AaAa
Slate 8005.41:1AaAa
Slate 9006.61:1AaAa
Black7.77:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A39B7D
deuteranopia · #A79F80
tritanopia · #B59693

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. #ad9b7f 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.

#F9F8F6
#F2F0ED
#E4DFD7
#D3CABB
#BDAF98
#ad9b7f
#958060
#7C6B50
#635540
#4A4031
#2E281F
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F8F6Darkest = 950 · #2E281FText 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 0.011 78.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.018 78.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.027 78.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.035 78.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.041 78.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.044 78.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.044 78.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.042 78.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.037 78.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.031 78.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.024 78.8);
}

Colors that work with #ad9b7f

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#F9F8F6
Tinted page background
Border#DFD8CD
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#8C785A
Captions on the surface
Accent#4C6E80
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4E4332
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5F3EF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#221D16
Dark-mode background
Hover#9F8A69
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8B7859
Two steps down
Disabled#D9D0C3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BEA782
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 #ad9b7f

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

Works well for
  • 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
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #4E4332
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A59172

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 mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight41/100
  • 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#7F91AD
Analogous left#AD847F
Analogous right#A8AD7F
Split-complement 1#7FA8AD
Split-complement 2#847FAD
Triadic 1#7FAD9B
Triadic 2#9B7FAD
Tetradic#7FAD84
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°37°

#ad9b7f sits at 37°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.8%
Green60.8%
Blue49.8%
R · 0–255
173
0xad
G · 0–255
155
0x9b
B · 0–255
127
0x7f

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta10.4%
Yellow26.6%
Key (black)32.2%

Total ink coverage is 69%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ad9b7f text on a black background

contrast 7.77:1

Card sample

#ad9b7f text on a white background

contrast 2.70:1

Card sample

#ad9b7f on grey

2.47:1

#ad9b7f on its own surface

2.55:1

#ad9b7f on its dark surface

6.19:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ad9b7f;
Background color
Panel with #ad9b7f background
background-color: #ad9b7f;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ad9b7f;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(173, 155, 127, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(173, 155, 127, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ad9b7f;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ad9b7f, #A0AD7F);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ad9b7f, #95AD7F);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ad9b7f;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ad9b7f;
caret-color: #ad9b7f;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ad9b7f;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5F3EF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ad9b7f;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ad9b7f 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ad9b7f 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(173, 155, 127, 0.5)
rgb(173 155 127 / 50%)
#ad9b7f80
hsl(37 22% 59% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ad9b7f 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ad9b7f1a#F7F5F2
20%#ad9b7f33#EFEBE5
40%#ad9b7f66#DED7CC
60%#ad9b7f99#CEC3B2
80%#ad9b7fcc#BDAF99

Gradients from #ad9b7f

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, #C5B8A4, #ad9b7f 45%, #4E4332);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ad9b7f, #8EA16C);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ad9b7f, #7F91AD);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D1C7B7 0%, #ad9b7f 45%, #4E4332 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F8F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C19F9E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B1B992 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4E4332 0%, transparent 65%), #ad9b7f;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ad9b7f

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.

#ad9b7f 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

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 7.77:1.

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.

#ad9b7f, answered

What color is #ad9b7f?

#ad9b7f is a balanced soft orange, closest to Tan (ΔE2000 9). It sits at 37° on the hue wheel with 22% saturation and 59% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ad9b7f?

rgb(173, 155, 127) — 173 red, 155 green and 127 blue out of 255, or 67.8% / 60.8% / 49.8% by channel.

What is #ad9b7f in HSL and HSV?

hsl(37, 22%, 59%) and hsv(37, 27%, 68%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ad9b7f a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3386 and perceived brightness is 62%, so black text on it reaches 7.77:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ad9b7f?

Black. It scores 7.77:1 against #ad9b7f, versus 2.70:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ad9b7f accessible on a white background?

#ad9b7f on white scores 2.70:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #857255 to reach 4.5:1, or #63553F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ad9b7f?

#7F91AD sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #7FA8AD and #847FAD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ad9b7f?

For interface work: #F9F8F6 as the surface, #DFD8CD for borders, #8C785A for secondary text, #4C6E80 as an accent and #4E4332 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AD847F and #A8AD7F stays calm, while #7F91AD is the loudest partner.

What is #ad9b7f in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 10%, 27%, 32%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ad9b7f warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 22 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AD947F; nudged cooler, #AFAE7D.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ad9b7f?

The stone family — its 500 step is #78716c, ΔE2000 18 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ad9b7f as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ad9b7f in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ad9b7f] or text-[#ad9b7f], 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 #ad9b7f with 50% opacity?

rgba(173, 155, 127, 0.5), or #ad9b7f80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6CDBF; over black, #574E40.

Is #ad9b7f a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999966, ΔE2000 10.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ad9b7f 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 #ad9b7f?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C5B8A4, #ad9b7f 45%, #4E4332). For more colour, a short hue run to #8EA16C keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ad9b7f in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ad9b7f at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.