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red · warm

#af494f

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

Token name suggestion: Atlas Cardinal

RGB
175, 73, 79
HSL
357°, 41%, 49%
CMYK
0, 58, 55, 31
Luminance
0.1444

#af494f is a balanced soft red, 357° on the wheel and 19/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (5.40:1). As text it scores 5.40:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Indian Red, nearest Tailwind family is rose.

hsl(357 41% 49%)rgb(175 73 79)Base step 600AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af494f is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af494f
Hue
357°
red
Saturation
41%
soft
Lightness
49%
balanced
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
45%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1444
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
19/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Soft
Best ink
White
5.40:1
Closest name
Indian Red
ΔE2000 8.8
Chroma
45.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.541
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
rose
500 · ΔE 13.3
Web-safe
#993366
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue357° of 360°
Saturation41%
Lightness49%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af494f.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool19% 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
Red63%
Green33%
Blue4%

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

Every format

HEX#af494f
HEX (8-digit)#af494fff
RGBrgb(175, 73, 79)
RGBArgba(175, 73, 79, 1)
HSLhsl(357, 41%, 49%)
HSV / HSBhsv(356, 58%, 69%)
HWBhwb(357 29% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 58%, 55%, 31%)
LABlab(44.9 42.2 17.6)
LCHlch(44.9 45.7 22.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.541 0.134 19.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(21.47, 14.45, 9.05)
Decimal11487567
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.286 0.310)
Web-safe#993366

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af494f;
background-color: #af494f;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af494f;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af494f] bg-[#af494f]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af494f;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.286, blue: 0.310)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.286, blue: 0.310, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF494F</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF494F)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF494F)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(79, 73, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 73, 79)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 73, 79)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 73, 79)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.2863f, 0.3098f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,73,79}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af494f 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af494f 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#5A2629, #EDD4D5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af494f 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: #FAF5F5;
  --brand-100: #F5EBEB;
  --brand-200: #EAD2D3;
  --brand-300: #DEB0B3;
  --brand-400: #CD888C;
  --brand-500: #BD6166;
  --brand-600: #af494f;
  --brand-700: #903C41;
  --brand-800: #733034;
  --brand-900: #542629;
  --brand-950: #351819;
  --brand: #af494f;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF4F5;
  --brand-border: #E7C5C7;
  --brand-hover: #963E44;
  --brand-pressed: #7C3438;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241415;
    --brand-ink: #EDD4D5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FAF5F5',
        100: '#F5EBEB',
        200: '#EAD2D3',
        300: '#DEB0B3',
        400: '#CD888C',
        500: '#BD6166',
        600: '#af494f',
        700: '#903C41',
        800: '#733034',
        900: '#542629',
        950: '#351819',
        DEFAULT: '#af494f',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FAF5F5,
  '100': #F5EBEB,
  '200': #EAD2D3,
  '300': #DEB0B3,
  '400': #CD888C,
  '500': #BD6166,
  '600': #af494f,
  '700': #903C41,
  '800': #733034,
  '900': #542629,
  '950': #351819,
);
$brand-base: #af494f;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FAF5F5", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F5EBEB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EAD2D3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#DEB0B3", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#CD888C", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#BD6166", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#af494f", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#903C41", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#733034", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#542629", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#351819", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af494f · 5.40:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 5.40:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 3.89:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af494f as text scores 5.40:1 on white and 3.89:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F7EDEE at 4.71:1.

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
#af494f · 5.40:1
AA on whitealready passes
#af494f
The quick fox
#923D42 · 7.07:1
AAA on white−8% L
#923D42
The quick fox
#B9585E · 4.62:1
AA on black+5% L
#B9585E
The quick fox
#CB8387 · 7.14:1
AAA on black+17% L
#CB8387

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF494F 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
#af494f on white: 5.40:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af494f on black: 3.89:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af494f as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af494f.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White5.40:1AaAa
Slate 505.16:1AaAa
Slate 1004.93:1AaAa
Slate 2004.38:1AaAa
Slate 3003.64:1AaAa
Slate 4002.11:1AaAa
Slate 5001.13:1AaAa
Slate 6001.40:1AaAa
Slate 7001.92:1AaAa
Slate 8002.71:1AaAa
Slate 9003.31:1AaAa
Black3.89:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #615D4F
deuteranopia · #7B724D
tritanopia · #BF384C

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. #af494f 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.

#FAF5F5
#F5EBEB
#EAD2D3
#DEB0B3
#CD888C
#BD6166
#af494f
#903C41
#733034
#542629
#351819
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FAF5F5Darkest = 950 · #351819Text 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 0.033 19.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.053 19.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.080 19.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.104 19.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.123 19.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.134 19.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.134 19.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.125 19.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.112 19.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.093 19.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.073 19.2);
}

Colors that work with #af494f

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#FAF4F5
Tinted page background
Border#E7C5C7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B4B4F
Captions on the surface
Accent#389477
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#5A2629
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F7EDEE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241415
Dark-mode background
Hover#963E44
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7C3438
Two steps down
Disabled#C5A4A5
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C44850
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 #af494f

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#49AFA9
Analogous left#AF4982
Analogous right#AF7649
Split-complement 1#49AF76
Split-complement 2#4982AF
Triadic 1#4FAF49
Triadic 2#494FAF
Tetradic#82AF49
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°357°

#af494f sits at 357°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green28.6%
Blue31.0%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
73
0x49
B · 0–255
79
0x4f

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta58.3%
Yellow54.9%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 145%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af494f text on a black background

contrast 3.89:1

Card sample

#af494f text on a white background

contrast 5.40:1

Card sample

#af494f on grey

4.93:1

#af494f on its own surface

4.97:1

#af494f on its dark surface

3.28:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af494f;
Background color
Panel with #af494f background
background-color: #af494f;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af494f;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 73, 79, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 73, 79, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af494f;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af494f, #AF8749);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af494f, #AFA049);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af494f;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af494f;
caret-color: #af494f;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af494f;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F7EDEE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af494f;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af494f 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af494f 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, 73, 79, 0.5)
rgb(175 73 79 / 50%)
#af494f80
hsl(357 41% 49% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af494f 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af494f1a#F7EDED
20%#af494f33#EFDBDC
40%#af494f66#DFB6B9
60%#af494f99#CF9295
80%#af494fcc#BF6D72

Gradients from #af494f

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, #C47176, #af494f 45%, #5A2629);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af494f, #997E40);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af494f, #49AFA9);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CD878B 0%, #af494f 45%, #5A2629 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF4F5, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C16AA2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BB8E5C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #5A2629 0%, transparent 65%), #af494f;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af494f

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.

#af494f 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 3.89:1 — lift it to #B9585E 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.

#af494f, answered

What color is #af494f?

#af494f is a balanced soft red, closest to Indian Red (ΔE2000 8.8). It sits at 357° on the hue wheel with 41% saturation and 49% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #af494f?

rgb(175, 73, 79) — 175 red, 73 green and 79 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 28.6% / 31% by channel.

What is #af494f in HSL and HSV?

hsl(357, 41%, 49%) and hsv(356, 58%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af494f a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1444 and perceived brightness is 45%, so white text on it reaches 5.40:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af494f?

White. It scores 5.40:1 against #af494f, versus 3.89:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #af494f accessible on a white background?

#af494f on white scores 5.40:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #af494f?

#49AFA9 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #49AF76 and #4982AF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af494f?

For interface work: #FAF4F5 as the surface, #E7C5C7 for borders, #9B4B4F for secondary text, #389477 as an accent and #5A2629 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AF4982 and #AF7649 stays calm, while #49AFA9 is the loudest partner.

What is #af494f in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 58%, 55%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #af494f warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 19 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AF6649; nudged cooler, #B14774.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af494f?

The rose family — its 500 step is #f43f5e, ΔE2000 13.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af494f as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af494f in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af494f] or text-[#af494f], 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 #af494f with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 73, 79, 0.5), or #af494f80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7A4A7; over black, #582528.

Is #af494f a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #993366, ΔE2000 14.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af494f 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 #af494f?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C47176, #af494f 45%, #5A2629). For more colour, a short hue run to #997E40 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af494f in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af494f at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.