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orange · warm

#af3909

a dark, electric orange · warm · closest name: Sienna

Token name suggestion: Shadow Amber

RGB
175, 57, 9
HSL
17°, 90%, 36%
CMYK
0, 67, 95, 31
Luminance
0.1206

#af3909 is a dark electric orange, 17° on the wheel and 7/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (6.15:1). As text it scores 6.15:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Sienna, nearest Tailwind family is red.

hsl(17 90% 36%)rgb(175 57 9)Base step 700AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af3909 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af3909
Hue
17°
orange
Saturation
90%
electric
Lightness
36%
dark
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
41%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1206
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
7/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
6.15:1
Closest name
Sienna
ΔE2000 6.9
Chroma
68.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.512
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
red
500 · ΔE 17.7
Web-safe
#993300
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue17° of 360°
Saturation90%
Lightness36%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af3909.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool7% 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
Red76%
Green24%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#af3909
HEX (8-digit)#af3909ff
RGBrgb(175, 57, 9)
RGBArgba(175, 57, 9, 1)
HSLhsl(17, 90%, 36%)
HSV / HSBhsv(17, 95%, 69%)
HWBhwb(17 4% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 67%, 95%, 31%)
LABlab(41.3 46.3 50.1)
LCHlch(41.3 68.2 47.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.512 0.162 38.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(19.19, 12.06, 1.58)
Decimal11483401
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.224 0.035)
Web-safe#993300

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af3909;
background-color: #af3909;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af3909;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af3909] bg-[#af3909]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af3909;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.224, blue: 0.035)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.224, blue: 0.035, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF3909</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF3909)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF3909)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(9, 57, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 57, 9)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 57, 9)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 57, 9)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.2235f, 0.0353f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,57,9}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af3909 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af3909 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#792706, #EEDBD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af3909 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: #FDF5F2;
  --brand-100: #FBEBE5;
  --brand-200: #F8D3C3;
  --brand-300: #FAB194;
  --brand-400: #F78B5F;
  --brand-500: #F4642A;
  --brand-600: #E94C0C;
  --brand-700: #af3909;
  --brand-800: #9B3208;
  --brand-900: #70280A;
  --brand-950: #461907;
  --brand: #af3909;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF6F4;
  --brand-border: #EDCDC0;
  --brand-hover: #8D2E07;
  --brand-pressed: #6B2306;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241814;
    --brand-ink: #EEDBD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF5F2',
        100: '#FBEBE5',
        200: '#F8D3C3',
        300: '#FAB194',
        400: '#F78B5F',
        500: '#F4642A',
        600: '#E94C0C',
        700: '#af3909',
        800: '#9B3208',
        900: '#70280A',
        950: '#461907',
        DEFAULT: '#af3909',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF5F2,
  '100': #FBEBE5,
  '200': #F8D3C3,
  '300': #FAB194,
  '400': #F78B5F,
  '500': #F4642A,
  '600': #E94C0C,
  '700': #af3909,
  '800': #9B3208,
  '900': #70280A,
  '950': #461907,
);
$brand-base: #af3909;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF5F2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBEBE5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F8D3C3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FAB194", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F78B5F", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F4642A", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E94C0C", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#af3909", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9B3208", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#70280A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#461907", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af3909 · 6.15:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 6.15:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 3.41:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af3909 as text scores 6.15:1 on white and 3.41:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #FEEDE7 at 5.42:1.

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
#af3909 · 6.15:1
AA on whitealready passes
#af3909
The quick fox
#9C3308 · 7.26:1
AAA on white−4% L
#9C3308
The quick fox
#D1440B · 4.54:1
AA on black+7% L
#D1440B
The quick fox
#F56B34 · 7.04:1
AAA on black+22% L
#F56B34

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF3909 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
#af3909 on white: 6.15:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af3909 on black: 3.41:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af3909 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af3909.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White6.15:1AaAa
Slate 505.88:1AaAa
Slate 1005.62:1AaAa
Slate 2004.99:1AaAa
Slate 3004.15:1AaAa
Slate 4002.40:1AaAa
Slate 5001.29:1AaAa
Slate 6001.23:1AaAa
Slate 7001.68:1AaAa
Slate 8002.38:1AaAa
Slate 9002.90:1AaAa
Black3.41:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #5C5100
deuteranopia · #796B00
tritanopia · #C10F31

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. #af3909 is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FDF5F2
#FBEBE5
#F8D3C3
#FAB194
#F78B5F
#F4642A
#E94C0C
#af3909
#9B3208
#70280A
#461907
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FDF5F2Darkest = 950 · #461907Text 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 0.040 38.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.065 38.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.097 38.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.126 38.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.149 38.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.162 38.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.162 38.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.152 38.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.136 38.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.113 38.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.089 38.2);
}

Colors that work with #af3909

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#FAF6F4
Tinted page background
Border#EDCDC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B624B
Captions on the surface
Accent#06BFC6
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#792706
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEEDE7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241814
Dark-mode background
Hover#8D2E07
One step down in lightness
Pressed#6B2306
Two steps down
Disabled#AC8A7D
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CD3B00
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 #af3909

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • 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
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • 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.

friendlyenergeticaffordablesocial

Orange is red with the aggression taken out — approachable, active, and strongly associated with buying and doing.

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

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

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#097FAF
Analogous left#AF092C
Analogous right#AF8C09
Split-complement 1#09AF8C
Split-complement 2#092CAF
Triadic 1#09AF39
Triadic 2#3909AF
Tetradic#2CAF09
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°17°

#af3909 sits at 17°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green22.4%
Blue3.5%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
57
0x39
B · 0–255
9
0x09

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta67.4%
Yellow94.9%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 194%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af3909 text on a black background

contrast 3.41:1

Card sample

#af3909 text on a white background

contrast 6.15:1

Card sample

#af3909 on grey

5.62:1

#af3909 on its own surface

5.73:1

#af3909 on its dark surface

2.81:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af3909;
Background color
Panel with #af3909 background
background-color: #af3909;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af3909;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 57, 9, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 57, 9, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af3909;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af3909, #AFA809);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af3909, #8DAF09);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af3909;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af3909;
caret-color: #af3909;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af3909;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEEDE7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af3909;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af3909 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af3909 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(175, 57, 9, 0.5)
rgb(175 57 9 / 50%)
#af390980
hsl(17 90% 36% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af3909 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af39091a#F7EBE6
20%#af390933#EFD7CE
40%#af390966#DFB09D
60%#af390999#CF886B
80%#af3909cc#BF613A

Gradients from #af3909

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, #E94C0C, #af3909 45%, #792706);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af3909, #8D9208);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af3909, #097FAF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F45D20 0%, #af3909 45%, #792706 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF6F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #E00C4A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #CCB30B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #792706 0%, transparent 65%), #af3909;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af3909

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.

#af3909 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

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

Too dim on dark surfaces at 3.41:1 — lift it to #D1440B 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.

#af3909, answered

What color is #af3909?

#af3909 is a dark electric orange, closest to Sienna (ΔE2000 6.9). It sits at 17° on the hue wheel with 90% saturation and 36% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #af3909?

rgb(175, 57, 9) — 175 red, 57 green and 9 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 22.4% / 3.5% by channel.

What is #af3909 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(17, 90%, 36%) and hsv(17, 95%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af3909 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1206 and perceived brightness is 41%, so white text on it reaches 6.15:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af3909?

White. It scores 6.15:1 against #af3909, versus 3.41:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #af3909 accessible on a white background?

#af3909 on white scores 6.15:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #af3909?

#097FAF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #09AF8C and #092CAF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af3909?

For interface work: #FAF6F4 as the surface, #EDCDC0 for borders, #9B624B for secondary text, #06BFC6 as an accent and #792706 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AF092C and #AF8C09 stays calm, while #097FAF is the loudest partner.

What is #af3909 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 67%, 95%, 31%). 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 #af3909 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 7 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C7500A; nudged cooler, #B10714.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af3909?

The red family — its 500 step is #ef4444, ΔE2000 17.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af3909 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af3909 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af3909] or text-[#af3909], 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 #af3909 with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 57, 9, 0.5), or #af390980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D79C84; over black, #581D05.

Is #af3909 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #993300, ΔE2000 4.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af3909 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 chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #af3909?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E94C0C, #af3909 45%, #792706). For more colour, a short hue run to #8D9208 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af3909 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af3909 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.