Skip to content
orange · warm

#af8949

a balanced, soft orange · warm · closest name: Dark Goldenrod

Token name suggestion: Studio Amber

RGB
175, 137, 73
HSL
38°, 41%, 49%
CMYK
0, 22, 58, 31
Luminance
0.2749

#af8949 is a balanced soft orange, 38° on the wheel and 6/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (6.50:1). As text it scores 3.23:1 on white — large text only. Nearest name is Dark Goldenrod, nearest Tailwind family is amber.

hsl(38 41% 49%)rgb(175 137 73)Base step 600AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af8949 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af8949
Hue
38°
orange
Saturation
41%
soft
Lightness
49%
balanced
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
57%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.2749
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
6/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
6.50:1
Closest name
Dark Goldenrod
ΔE2000 7.1
Chroma
40.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.653
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
amber
500 · ΔE 15.6
Web-safe
#999933
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue38° 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 #af8949.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool6% 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
Red33%
Green65%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#af8949
HEX (8-digit)#af8949ff
RGBrgb(175, 137, 73)
RGBArgba(175, 137, 73, 1)
HSLhsl(38, 41%, 49%)
HSV / HSBhsv(38, 58%, 69%)
HWBhwb(38 29% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 22%, 58%, 31%)
LABlab(59.4 6.9 39.4)
LCHlch(59.4 40.0 80.0)
OKLCHoklch(0.653 0.094 78.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(27.83, 27.49, 10.14)
Decimal11503945
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.537 0.286)
Web-safe#999933

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af8949;
background-color: #af8949;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af8949;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af8949] bg-[#af8949]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af8949;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.537, blue: 0.286)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.537, blue: 0.286, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF8949</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF8949)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF8949)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(73, 137, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 137, 73)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 137, 73)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 137, 73)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.5373f, 0.2863f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,137,73}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af8949 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af8949 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#5A4626, #EDE4D4);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af8949 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: #FAF8F5;
  --brand-100: #F5F1EB;
  --brand-200: #EAE1D2;
  --brand-300: #DECDB0;
  --brand-400: #CDB488;
  --brand-500: #BD9A61;
  --brand-600: #af8949;
  --brand-700: #90713C;
  --brand-800: #735A30;
  --brand-900: #544326;
  --brand-950: #352A18;
  --brand: #af8949;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF8F4;
  --brand-border: #E7DAC5;
  --brand-hover: #96753E;
  --brand-pressed: #7C6134;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241E14;
    --brand-ink: #EDE4D4;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FAF8F5',
        100: '#F5F1EB',
        200: '#EAE1D2',
        300: '#DECDB0',
        400: '#CDB488',
        500: '#BD9A61',
        600: '#af8949',
        700: '#90713C',
        800: '#735A30',
        900: '#544326',
        950: '#352A18',
        DEFAULT: '#af8949',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FAF8F5,
  '100': #F5F1EB,
  '200': #EAE1D2,
  '300': #DECDB0,
  '400': #CDB488,
  '500': #BD9A61,
  '600': #af8949,
  '700': #90713C,
  '800': #735A30,
  '900': #544326,
  '950': #352A18,
);
$brand-base: #af8949;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FAF8F5", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F5F1EB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EAE1D2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#DECDB0", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#CDB488", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#BD9A61", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#af8949", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#90713C", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#735A30", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#544326", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#352A18", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af8949 · 6.50:1
Use #000000AA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 3.23:1
AA fail · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 6.50:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #af8949 as text scores 3.23:1 on white and 6.50:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #5A4626 at 2.78:1.

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
#8E6F3B · 4.68:1
AA on white−9% L
#8E6F3B
The quick fox
#6B532C · 7.24:1
AAA on white−19% L
#6B532C
The quick fox
#af8949 · 6.50:1
AA on blackalready passes
#af8949
The quick fox
#B69051 · 7.10:1
AAA on black+3% L
#B69051

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AF8949 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
#af8949 on white: 3.23:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af8949 on black: 6.50:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af8949 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af8949.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White3.23:1AaAa
Slate 503.09:1AaAa
Slate 1002.95:1AaAa
Slate 2002.62:1AaAa
Slate 3002.18:1AaAa
Slate 4001.26:1AaAa
Slate 5001.47:1AaAa
Slate 6002.34:1AaAa
Slate 7003.20:1AaAa
Slate 8004.53:1AaAa
Slate 9005.52:1AaAa
Black6.50:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #988A43
deuteranopia · #A1934B
tritanopia · #BD7E7A

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. #af8949 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.

#FAF8F5
#F5F1EB
#EAE1D2
#DECDB0
#CDB488
#BD9A61
#af8949
#90713C
#735A30
#544326
#352A18
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FAF8F5Darkest = 950 · #352A18Text 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 78.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.038 78.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.057 78.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.074 78.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.087 78.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.094 78.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.094 78.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.089 78.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.079 78.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.066 78.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.052 78.9);
}

Colors that work with #af8949

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#FAF8F4
Tinted page background
Border#E7DAC5
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B7D4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#448AB4
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#5A4626
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F7F4ED
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241E14
Dark-mode background
Hover#96753E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7C6134
Two steps down
Disabled#C5B8A4
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C49648
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 #af8949

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 #5A4626
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
  • 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#496FAF
Analogous left#AF5649
Analogous right#A2AF49
Split-complement 1#49A2AF
Split-complement 2#5649AF
Triadic 1#49AF89
Triadic 2#8949AF
Tetradic#49AF56
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°38°

#af8949 sits at 38°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green53.7%
Blue28.6%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
137
0x89
B · 0–255
73
0x49

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta21.7%
Yellow58.3%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 111%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af8949 text on a black background

contrast 6.50:1

Card sample

#af8949 text on a white background

contrast 3.23:1

Card sample

#af8949 on grey

2.95:1

#af8949 on its own surface

3.05:1

#af8949 on its dark surface

5.11:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af8949;
Background color
Panel with #af8949 background
background-color: #af8949;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af8949;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 137, 73, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 137, 73, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af8949;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af8949, #91AF49);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af8949, #78AF49);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af8949;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af8949;
caret-color: #af8949;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af8949;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F7F4ED;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af8949;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af8949 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af8949 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, 137, 73, 0.5)
rgb(175 137 73 / 50%)
#af894980
hsl(38 41% 49% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af8949 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af89491a#F7F3ED
20%#af894933#EFE7DB
40%#af894966#DFD0B6
60%#af894999#CFB892
80%#af8949cc#BFA16D

Gradients from #af8949

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, #C4A571, #af8949 45%, #5A4626);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af8949, #789940);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af8949, #496FAF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CDB387 0%, #af8949 45%, #5A4626 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF8F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C16E6A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #A7BB5C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #5A4626 0%, transparent 65%), #af8949;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af8949

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.

#af8949 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 6.50:1.

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.

#af8949, answered

What color is #af8949?

#af8949 is a balanced soft orange, closest to Dark Goldenrod (ΔE2000 7.1). It sits at 38° on the hue wheel with 41% saturation and 49% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #af8949?

rgb(175, 137, 73) — 175 red, 137 green and 73 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 53.7% / 28.6% by channel.

What is #af8949 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(38, 41%, 49%) and hsv(38, 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 #af8949 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.2749 and perceived brightness is 57%, so black text on it reaches 6.50:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af8949?

Black. It scores 6.50:1 against #af8949, versus 3.23:1 for white — AA at any size.

Is #af8949 accessible on a white background?

#af8949 on white scores 3.23:1, which only clears AA for large text — 18.66px bold or 24px regular and up. Darken it to #8E6F3B to reach 4.5:1, or #6B532C for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #af8949?

#496FAF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #49A2AF and #5649AF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af8949?

For interface work: #FAF8F4 as the surface, #E7DAC5 for borders, #9B7D4B for secondary text, #448AB4 as an accent and #5A4626 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AF5649 and #A2AF49 stays calm, while #496FAF is the loudest partner.

What is #af8949 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 22%, 58%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #af8949 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 6 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AF7B49; nudged cooler, #B1B147.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af8949?

The amber family — its 500 step is #f59e0b, ΔE2000 15.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af8949 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af8949 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af8949] or text-[#af8949], 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 #af8949 with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 137, 73, 0.5), or #af894980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7C4A4; over black, #584525.

Is #af8949 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999933, ΔE2000 14.2 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af8949 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 #af8949?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C4A571, #af8949 45%, #5A4626). For more colour, a short hue run to #789940 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af8949 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af8949 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.