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red · warm

#af9f9b

a balanced, muted red · warm · closest name: Dark Gray

Token name suggestion: Atlas Cherry

RGB
175, 159, 155
HSL
12°, 11%, 65%
CMYK
0, 9, 11, 31
Luminance
0.3628

#af9f9b is a balanced muted red, 12° on the wheel and 37/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.26:1). As text it scores 2.54:1 on white — use #87726C instead. Nearest name is Dark Gray, nearest Tailwind family is stone.

hsl(12 11% 65%)rgb(175 159 155)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #af9f9b is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#af9f9b
Hue
12°
red
Saturation
11%
muted
Lightness
65%
balanced
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
64%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3628
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
37/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
8.26:1
Closest name
Dark Gray
ΔE2000 7.6
Chroma
6.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.715
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
stone
500 · ΔE 17.5
Web-safe
#999999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue12° of 360°
Saturation11%
Lightness65%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #af9f9b.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool37% 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
Red25%
Green68%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#af9f9b
HEX (8-digit)#af9f9bff
RGBrgb(175, 159, 155)
RGBArgba(175, 159, 155, 1)
HSLhsl(12, 11%, 65%)
HSV / HSBhsv(12, 11%, 69%)
HWBhwb(12 61% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 9%, 11%, 31%)
LABlab(66.7 5.1 4.2)
LCHlch(66.7 6.6 39.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.715 0.020 34.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(35.99, 36.28, 36.11)
Decimal11509659
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.624 0.608)
Web-safe#999999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #af9f9b;
background-color: #af9f9b;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #af9f9b;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#af9f9b] bg-[#af9f9b]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #af9f9b;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.624, blue: 0.608)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.624, blue: 0.608, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AF9F9B</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAF9F9B)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAF9F9B)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(155, 159, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 159, 155)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 159, 155)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 159, 155)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.6235f, 0.6078f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,159,155}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #af9f9b 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #af9f9b 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#473C39, #E4DEDD);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #af9f9b 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: #F8F7F7;
  --brand-100: #F1EFEE;
  --brand-200: #E1DCDB;
  --brand-300: #CDC3C1;
  --brand-400: #af9f9b;
  --brand-500: #9B8782;
  --brand-600: #88726D;
  --brand-700: #715F5B;
  --brand-800: #5B4C49;
  --brand-900: #433937;
  --brand-950: #2A2422;
  --brand: #af9f9b;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F7F7;
  --brand-border: #DBD3D2;
  --brand-hover: #9F8C87;
  --brand-pressed: #8F7973;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #1F1A19;
    --brand-ink: #E4DEDD;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F8F7F7',
        100: '#F1EFEE',
        200: '#E1DCDB',
        300: '#CDC3C1',
        400: '#af9f9b',
        500: '#9B8782',
        600: '#88726D',
        700: '#715F5B',
        800: '#5B4C49',
        900: '#433937',
        950: '#2A2422',
        DEFAULT: '#af9f9b',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F8F7F7,
  '100': #F1EFEE,
  '200': #E1DCDB,
  '300': #CDC3C1,
  '400': #af9f9b,
  '500': #9B8782,
  '600': #88726D,
  '700': #715F5B,
  '800': #5B4C49,
  '900': #433937,
  '950': #2A2422,
);
$brand-base: #af9f9b;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F8F7F7", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F1EFEE", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E1DCDB", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#CDC3C1", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#af9f9b", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#9B8782", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#88726D", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#715F5B", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#5B4C49", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#433937", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2A2422", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #af9f9b · 8.26:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.54:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.26:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #af9f9b as text scores 2.54:1 on white and 8.26:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #473C39 at 4.18:1.

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
#87726C · 4.51:1
AA on white−17% L
#87726C
The quick fox
#655551 · 7.07:1
AAA on white−29% L
#655551
The quick fox
#af9f9b · 8.26:1
AA on blackalready passes
#af9f9b
The quick fox
#af9f9b · 8.26:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#af9f9b

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A18F8A 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
#af9f9b on white: 2.54:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#af9f9b on black: 8.26:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #af9f9b as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #af9f9b.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.54:1AaAa
Slate 502.43:1AaAa
Slate 1002.32:1AaAa
Slate 2002.06:1AaAa
Slate 3001.71:1AaAa
Slate 4001.01:1AaAa
Slate 5001.87:1AaAa
Slate 6002.98:1AaAa
Slate 7004.07:1AaAa
Slate 8005.75:1AaAa
Slate 9007.02:1AaAa
Black8.26:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A2A19B
deuteranopia · #A6A49B
tritanopia · #B39D9E

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. #af9f9b is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F8F7F7
#F1EFEE
#E1DCDB
#CDC3C1
#af9f9b
#9B8782
#88726D
#715F5B
#5B4C49
#433937
#2A2422
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F8F7F7Darkest = 950 · #2A2422Text 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 0.005 34.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.008 34.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.012 34.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.015 34.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.018 34.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.020 34.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.020 34.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.019 34.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.017 34.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.014 34.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.011 34.3);
}

Colors that work with #af9f9b

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#F8F7F7
Tinted page background
Border#DBD3D2
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#7F6B66
Captions on the surface
Accent#567674
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#473C39
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F4F1F1
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#1F1A19
Dark-mode background
Hover#9F8C87
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8F7973
Two steps down
Disabled#E1DBD9
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C0A59E
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 #af9f9b

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #473C39
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A18F8A

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.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. 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
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight35/100
  • TemperatureWarm
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

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#9BABAF
Analogous left#AF9BA1
Analogous right#AFA99B
Split-complement 1#9BAFA9
Split-complement 2#9BA1AF
Triadic 1#9BAF9F
Triadic 2#9F9BAF
Tetradic#A1AF9B
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°12°

#af9f9b sits at 12°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green62.4%
Blue60.8%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
159
0x9f
B · 0–255
155
0x9b

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta9.1%
Yellow11.4%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 52%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#af9f9b text on a black background

contrast 8.26:1

Card sample

#af9f9b text on a white background

contrast 2.54:1

Card sample

#af9f9b on grey

2.32:1

#af9f9b on its own surface

2.38:1

#af9f9b on its dark surface

6.77:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #af9f9b;
Background color
Panel with #af9f9b background
background-color: #af9f9b;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #af9f9b;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 159, 155, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 159, 155, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #af9f9b;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #af9f9b, #AFAC9B);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af9f9b, #ADAF9B);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #af9f9b;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #af9f9b;
caret-color: #af9f9b;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #af9f9b;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F4F1F1;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #af9f9b;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#af9f9b 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #af9f9b 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, 159, 155, 0.5)
rgb(175 159 155 / 50%)
#af9f9b80
hsl(12 11% 65% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #af9f9b 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#af9f9b1a#F7F5F5
20%#af9f9b33#EFECEB
40%#af9f9b66#DFD9D7
60%#af9f9b99#CFC5C3
80%#af9f9bcc#BFB2AF

Gradients from #af9f9b

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, #CAC0BD, #af9f9b 45%, #473C39);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #af9f9b, #A1A08A);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #af9f9b, #9BABAF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D8D0CE 0%, #af9f9b 45%, #473C39 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F7F7, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C6B7BD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #BDB9AC 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #473C39 0%, transparent 65%), #af9f9b;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #af9f9b

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.

#af9f9b 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
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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 8.26:1.

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.

#af9f9b, answered

What color is #af9f9b?

#af9f9b is a balanced muted red, closest to Dark Gray (ΔE2000 7.6). It sits at 12° on the hue wheel with 11% saturation and 65% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #af9f9b?

rgb(175, 159, 155) — 175 red, 159 green and 155 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 62.4% / 60.8% by channel.

What is #af9f9b in HSL and HSV?

hsl(12, 11%, 65%) and hsv(12, 11%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #af9f9b a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3628 and perceived brightness is 64%, so black text on it reaches 8.26:1.

Should I use black or white text on #af9f9b?

Black. It scores 8.26:1 against #af9f9b, versus 2.54:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #af9f9b accessible on a white background?

#af9f9b on white scores 2.54:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #87726C to reach 4.5:1, or #655551 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #af9f9b?

#9BABAF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #9BAFA9 and #9BA1AF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #af9f9b?

For interface work: #F8F7F7 as the surface, #DBD3D2 for borders, #7F6B66 for secondary text, #567674 as an accent and #473C39 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AF9BA1 and #AFA99B stays calm, while #9BABAF is the loudest partner.

What is #af9f9b in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 9%, 11%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #af9f9b warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 37 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AFA39B; nudged cooler, #B1999D.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #af9f9b?

The stone family — its 500 step is #78716c, ΔE2000 17.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #af9f9b as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #af9f9b in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#af9f9b] or text-[#af9f9b], 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 #af9f9b with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 159, 155, 0.5), or #af9f9b80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7CFCD; over black, #58504E.

Is #af9f9b a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999999, ΔE2000 7.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #af9f9b 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 low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #af9f9b?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #CAC0BD, #af9f9b 45%, #473C39). For more colour, a short hue run to #A1A08A keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #af9f9b in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #af9f9b at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.