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orange · warm

#ae7c46

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

Token name suggestion: Signal Apricot

RGB
174, 124, 70
HSL
31°, 43%, 48%
CMYK
0, 29, 60, 32
Luminance
0.2386

#ae7c46 is a balanced soft orange, 31° on the wheel and 1/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (5.77:1). As text it scores 3.64:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Peru, nearest Tailwind family is orange.

hsl(31 43% 48%)rgb(174 124 70)Base step 600AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ae7c46 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ae7c46
Hue
31°
orange
Saturation
43%
soft
Lightness
48%
balanced
Brightness
68%
HSV value
Perceived
54%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2386
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
1/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
5.77:1
Closest name
Peru
ΔE2000 7.1
Chroma
39.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.625
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
orange
500 · ΔE 16.4
Web-safe
#996633
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue31° of 360°
Saturation43%
Lightness48%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ae7c46.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool1% 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
Red38%
Green60%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#ae7c46
HEX (8-digit)#ae7c46ff
RGBrgb(174, 124, 70)
RGBArgba(174, 124, 70, 1)
HSLhsl(31, 43%, 48%)
HSV / HSBhsv(31, 60%, 68%)
HWBhwb(31 27% 32%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 29%, 60%, 32%)
LABlab(56.0 13.5 36.8)
LCHlch(56.0 39.2 69.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.625 0.094 66.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(25.77, 23.86, 9.04)
Decimal11435078
Display P3color(display-p3 0.682 0.486 0.275)
Web-safe#996633

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ae7c46;
background-color: #ae7c46;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ae7c46;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ae7c46] bg-[#ae7c46]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ae7c46;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.682, green: 0.486, blue: 0.275)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.682, green: 0.486, blue: 0.275, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AE7C46</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAE7C46)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAE7C46)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(70, 124, 174)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(174, 124, 70)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(174, 124, 70)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 174, 124, 70)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6824f, 0.4863f, 0.2745f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{174,124,70}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ae7c46 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ae7c46 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#5B4125, #EDE1D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ae7c46 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: #FAF7F5;
  --brand-100: #F5F0EB;
  --brand-200: #EADED1;
  --brand-300: #DFC8AF;
  --brand-400: #CFAC87;
  --brand-500: #BF915F;
  --brand-600: #ae7c46;
  --brand-700: #91683B;
  --brand-800: #74532F;
  --brand-900: #553E25;
  --brand-950: #352717;
  --brand: #ae7c46;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF7F4;
  --brand-border: #E8D7C5;
  --brand-hover: #946A3C;
  --brand-pressed: #7B5831;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241C14;
    --brand-ink: #EDE1D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FAF7F5',
        100: '#F5F0EB',
        200: '#EADED1',
        300: '#DFC8AF',
        400: '#CFAC87',
        500: '#BF915F',
        600: '#ae7c46',
        700: '#91683B',
        800: '#74532F',
        900: '#553E25',
        950: '#352717',
        DEFAULT: '#ae7c46',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FAF7F5,
  '100': #F5F0EB,
  '200': #EADED1,
  '300': #DFC8AF,
  '400': #CFAC87,
  '500': #BF915F,
  '600': #ae7c46,
  '700': #91683B,
  '800': #74532F,
  '900': #553E25,
  '950': #352717,
);
$brand-base: #ae7c46;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FAF7F5", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F5F0EB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EADED1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#DFC8AF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#CFAC87", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#BF915F", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#ae7c46", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#91683B", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#74532F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#553E25", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#352717", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ae7c46 · 5.77:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 3.64:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 5.77:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #ae7c46 as text scores 3.64:1 on white and 5.77:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #5B4125 at 2.59:1.

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
#986C3D · 4.62:1
AA on white−6% L
#986C3D
The quick fox
#74522F · 7.02:1
AAA on white−16% L
#74522F
The quick fox
#ae7c46 · 5.77:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ae7c46
The quick fox
#BD8E5B · 7.18:1
AAA on black+7% L
#BD8E5B

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AE7C46 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
#ae7c46 on white: 3.64:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ae7c46 on black: 5.77:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ae7c46 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ae7c46.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White3.64:1AaAa
Slate 503.48:1AaAa
Slate 1003.32:1AaAa
Slate 2002.95:1AaAa
Slate 3002.45:1AaAa
Slate 4001.42:1AaAa
Slate 5001.31:1AaAa
Slate 6002.08:1AaAa
Slate 7002.85:1AaAa
Slate 8004.02:1AaAa
Slate 9004.91:1AaAa
Black5.77:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #8C7F41
deuteranopia · #988B47
tritanopia · #BC706F

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. #ae7c46 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.

#FAF7F5
#F5F0EB
#EADED1
#DFC8AF
#CFAC87
#BF915F
#ae7c46
#91683B
#74532F
#553E25
#352717
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FAF7F5Darkest = 950 · #352717Text 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 0.024 66.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.038 66.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.057 66.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.073 66.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.087 66.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.094 66.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.094 66.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.089 66.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.079 66.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.066 66.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.052 66.7);
}

Colors that work with #ae7c46

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#FAF7F4
Tinted page background
Border#E8D7C5
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B744B
Captions on the surface
Accent#4194B3
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#5B4125
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F8F2ED
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241C14
Dark-mode background
Hover#946A3C
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7B5831
Two steps down
Disabled#C3B3A1
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C58743
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 #ae7c46

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
  • 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 #5B4125
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 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
  • Weight52/100
  • 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#4678AE
Analogous left#AE4846
Analogous right#ACAE46
Split-complement 1#46ACAE
Split-complement 2#4846AE
Triadic 1#46AE7C
Triadic 2#7C46AE
Tetradic#46AE48
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°31°

#ae7c46 sits at 31°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.2%
Green48.6%
Blue27.5%
R · 0–255
174
0xae
G · 0–255
124
0x7c
B · 0–255
70
0x46

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta28.7%
Yellow59.8%
Key (black)31.8%

Total ink coverage is 120%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ae7c46 text on a black background

contrast 5.77:1

Card sample

#ae7c46 text on a white background

contrast 3.64:1

Card sample

#ae7c46 on grey

3.32:1

#ae7c46 on its own surface

3.41:1

#ae7c46 on its dark surface

4.61:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ae7c46;
Background color
Panel with #ae7c46 background
background-color: #ae7c46;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ae7c46;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(174, 124, 70, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(174, 124, 70, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ae7c46;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ae7c46, #9AAE46);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ae7c46, #80AE46);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ae7c46;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ae7c46;
caret-color: #ae7c46;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ae7c46;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F8F2ED;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ae7c46;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ae7c46 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ae7c46 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(174, 124, 70, 0.5)
rgb(174 124 70 / 50%)
#ae7c4680
hsl(31 43% 48% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ae7c46 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ae7c461a#F7F2ED
20%#ae7c4633#EFE5DA
40%#ae7c4666#DFCBB5
60%#ae7c4699#CEB090
80%#ae7c46cc#BE966B

Gradients from #ae7c46

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, #C49A6D, #ae7c46 45%, #5B4125);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ae7c46, #7F983D);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ae7c46, #4678AE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CDA983 0%, #ae7c46 45%, #5B4125 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF7F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C1666B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #B1BB57 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #5B4125 0%, transparent 65%), #ae7c46;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ae7c46

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.

#ae7c46 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 5.77:1.

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.

#ae7c46, answered

What color is #ae7c46?

#ae7c46 is a balanced soft orange, closest to Peru (ΔE2000 7.1). It sits at 31° on the hue wheel with 43% saturation and 48% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ae7c46?

rgb(174, 124, 70) — 174 red, 124 green and 70 blue out of 255, or 68.2% / 48.6% / 27.5% by channel.

What is #ae7c46 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(31, 43%, 48%) and hsv(31, 60%, 68%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ae7c46 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2386 and perceived brightness is 54%, so black text on it reaches 5.77:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ae7c46?

Black. It scores 5.77:1 against #ae7c46, versus 3.64:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #ae7c46 accessible on a white background?

#ae7c46 on white scores 3.64:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #986C3D to reach 4.5:1, or #74522F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ae7c46?

#4678AE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #46ACAE and #4846AE, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ae7c46?

For interface work: #FAF7F4 as the surface, #E8D7C5 for borders, #9B744B for secondary text, #4194B3 as an accent and #5B4125 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AE4846 and #ACAE46 stays calm, while #4678AE is the loudest partner.

What is #ae7c46 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 29%, 60%, 32%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ae7c46 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 1 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BA8253; nudged cooler, #B05444.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ae7c46?

The orange family — its 500 step is #f97316, ΔE2000 16.4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ae7c46 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ae7c46 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ae7c46] or text-[#ae7c46], 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 #ae7c46 with 50% opacity?

rgba(174, 124, 70, 0.5), or #ae7c4680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7BEA3; over black, #573E23.

Is #ae7c46 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #996633, ΔE2000 8.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ae7c46 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 #ae7c46?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C49A6D, #ae7c46 45%, #5B4125). For more colour, a short hue run to #7F983D keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ae7c46 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ae7c46 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.