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orange · warm

#af5e40

a balanced, vivid orange · warm · closest name: Sienna

Token name suggestion: True Clay

RGB
175, 94, 64
HSL
16°, 46%, 47%
CMYK
0, 46, 63, 31
Luminance
0.1749

#af5e40 is a balanced vivid orange, 16° on the wheel and 8/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.67:1). As text it scores 4.67:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Sienna, nearest Tailwind family is red.

hsl(16 46% 47%)rgb(175 94 64)Base step 600AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af5e40 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af5e40
Hue
16°
orange
Saturation
46%
vivid
Lightness
47%
balanced
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
48%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1749
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
8/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
White
4.67:1
Closest name
Sienna
ΔE2000 5.5
Chroma
43.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.571
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
red
500 · ΔE 14
Web-safe
#996633
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue16° of 360°
Saturation46%
Lightness47%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af5e40.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool8% 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
Red52%
Green46%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#af5e40
HEX (8-digit)#af5e40ff
RGBrgb(175, 94, 64)
RGBArgba(175, 94, 64, 1)
HSLhsl(16, 46%, 47%)
HSV / HSBhsv(16, 63%, 69%)
HWBhwb(16 25% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 46%, 63%, 31%)
LABlab(48.9 30.2 31.6)
LCHlch(48.9 43.7 46.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.571 0.114 40.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(22.61, 17.49, 7.04)
Decimal11492928
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.369 0.251)
Web-safe#996633

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af5e40;
background-color: #af5e40;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af5e40;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af5e40] bg-[#af5e40]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af5e40;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.369, blue: 0.251)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.369, blue: 0.251, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF5E40</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF5E40)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF5E40)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(64, 94, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 94, 64)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 94, 64)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 94, 64)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.3686f, 0.2510f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,94,64}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af5e40 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af5e40 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#5D3222, #EEDAD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af5e40 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: #FAF6F5;
  --brand-100: #F5EDEA;
  --brand-200: #EBD8D0;
  --brand-300: #E1BBAD;
  --brand-400: #D29984;
  --brand-500: #C3775B;
  --brand-600: #af5e40;
  --brand-700: #955037;
  --brand-800: #77402C;
  --brand-900: #573123;
  --brand-950: #371F16;
  --brand: #af5e40;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF6F4;
  --brand-border: #E9CDC3;
  --brand-hover: #955037;
  --brand-pressed: #7B422D;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241814;
    --brand-ink: #EEDAD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FAF6F5',
        100: '#F5EDEA',
        200: '#EBD8D0',
        300: '#E1BBAD',
        400: '#D29984',
        500: '#C3775B',
        600: '#af5e40',
        700: '#955037',
        800: '#77402C',
        900: '#573123',
        950: '#371F16',
        DEFAULT: '#af5e40',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FAF6F5,
  '100': #F5EDEA,
  '200': #EBD8D0,
  '300': #E1BBAD,
  '400': #D29984,
  '500': #C3775B,
  '600': #af5e40,
  '700': #955037,
  '800': #77402C,
  '900': #573123,
  '950': #371F16,
);
$brand-base: #af5e40;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FAF6F5", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F5EDEA", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EBD8D0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#E1BBAD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#D29984", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#C3775B", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#af5e40", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#955037", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#77402C", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#573123", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#371F16", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af5e40 · 4.67:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.67:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.50:1
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af5e40 as text scores 4.67:1 on white and 4.50:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #F8F0EC at 4.15:1.

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
#af5e40 · 4.67:1
AA on whitealready passes
#af5e40
The quick fox
#864831 · 7.04:1
AAA on white−11% L
#864831
The quick fox
#af5e40 · 4.50:1
AA on blackalready passes
#af5e40
The quick fox
#CA866D · 7.14:1
AAA on black+14% L
#CA866D

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF5E40 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
#af5e40 on white: 4.67:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af5e40 on black: 4.50:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af5e40 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af5e40.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.67:1AaAa
Slate 504.46:1AaAa
Slate 1004.26:1AaAa
Slate 2003.79:1AaAa
Slate 3003.14:1AaAa
Slate 4001.82:1AaAa
Slate 5001.02:1AaAa
Slate 6001.62:1AaAa
Slate 7002.22:1AaAa
Slate 8003.13:1AaAa
Slate 9003.82:1AaAa
Black4.50:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #73693D
deuteranopia · #877B3F
tritanopia · #BF4F57

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. #af5e40 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.

#FAF6F5
#F5EDEA
#EBD8D0
#E1BBAD
#D29984
#C3775B
#af5e40
#955037
#77402C
#573123
#371F16
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FAF6F5Darkest = 950 · #371F16Text 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 0.029 40.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.046 40.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.068 40.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.089 40.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.105 40.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.114 40.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.114 40.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.107 40.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.096 40.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.080 40.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.063 40.7);
}

Colors that work with #af5e40

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#E9CDC3
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B604B
Captions on the surface
Accent#32979A
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#5D3222
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F8F0EC
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241814
Dark-mode background
Hover#955037
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7B422D
Two steps down
Disabled#C1A89E
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C8613B
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 #af5e40

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

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. 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-high
  • Weight53/100
  • 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#4091AF
Analogous left#AF405A
Analogous right#AF9640
Split-complement 1#40AF96
Split-complement 2#405AAF
Triadic 1#40AF5E
Triadic 2#5E40AF
Tetradic#5AAF40
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°16°

#af5e40 sits at 16°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green36.9%
Blue25.1%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
94
0x5e
B · 0–255
64
0x40

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta46.3%
Yellow63.4%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 141%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af5e40 text on a black background

contrast 4.50:1

Card sample

#af5e40 text on a white background

contrast 4.67:1

Card sample

#af5e40 on grey

4.26:1

#af5e40 on its own surface

4.35:1

#af5e40 on its dark surface

3.70:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af5e40;
Background color
Panel with #af5e40 background
background-color: #af5e40;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af5e40;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 94, 64, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 94, 64, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af5e40;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af5e40, #AFA840);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af5e40, #9AAF40);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af5e40;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af5e40;
caret-color: #af5e40;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af5e40;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F8F0EC;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af5e40;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af5e40 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af5e40 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, 94, 64, 0.5)
rgb(175 94 64 / 50%)
#af5e4080
hsl(16 46% 47% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af5e40 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af5e401a#F7EFEC
20%#af5e4033#EFDFD9
40%#af5e4066#DFBFB3
60%#af5e4099#CF9E8C
80%#af5e40cc#BF7E66

Gradients from #af5e40

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, #C78066, #af5e40 45%, #5D3222);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af5e40, #979938);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af5e40, #4091AF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CF927C 0%, #af5e40 45%, #5D3222 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%, #C45E7E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BFAE4F 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #5D3222 0%, transparent 65%), #af5e40;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af5e40

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.

#af5e40 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 4.50:1.

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.

#af5e40, answered

What color is #af5e40?

#af5e40 is a balanced vivid orange, closest to Sienna (ΔE2000 5.5). It sits at 16° on the hue wheel with 46% saturation and 47% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #af5e40?

rgb(175, 94, 64) — 175 red, 94 green and 64 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 36.9% / 25.1% by channel.

What is #af5e40 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(16, 46%, 47%) and hsv(16, 63%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af5e40 a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1749 and perceived brightness is 48%, so white text on it reaches 4.67:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af5e40?

White. It scores 4.67:1 against #af5e40, versus 4.50:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #af5e40 accessible on a white background?

#af5e40 on white scores 4.67:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #af5e40?

#4091AF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #40AF96 and #405AAF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af5e40?

For interface work: #FAF6F4 as the surface, #E9CDC3 for borders, #9B604B for secondary text, #32979A as an accent and #5D3222 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AF405A and #AF9640 stays calm, while #4091AF is the loudest partner.

What is #af5e40 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 46%, 63%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #af5e40 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 8 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AF6A40; nudged cooler, #B13E49.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af5e40?

The red family — its 500 step is #ef4444, ΔE2000 14 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af5e40 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af5e40 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af5e40] or text-[#af5e40], 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 #af5e40 with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 94, 64, 0.5), or #af5e4080 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7AFA0; over black, #582F20.

Is #af5e40 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #996633, ΔE2000 11 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af5e40 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 #af5e40?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C78066, #af5e40 45%, #5D3222). For more colour, a short hue run to #979938 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af5e40 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af5e40 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.