Skip to content
yellow · warm

#afab88

a balanced, soft yellow · warm · closest name: Dark Khaki

Token name suggestion: True Brass

RGB
175, 171, 136
HSL
54°, 20%, 61%
CMYK
0, 2, 22, 31
Luminance
0.4002

#afab88 is a balanced soft yellow, 54° on the wheel and 33/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.00:1). As text it scores 2.33:1 on white — use #7A7652 instead. Nearest name is Dark Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(54 20% 61%)rgb(175 171 136)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #afab88 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#afab88
Hue
54°
yellow
Saturation
20%
soft
Lightness
61%
balanced
Brightness
69%
HSV value
Perceived
66%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4002
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
33/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
9.00:1
Closest name
Dark Khaki
ΔE2000 9.5
Chroma
19.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.735
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 21
Web-safe
#999999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue54° of 360°
Saturation20%
Lightness61%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #afab88.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool33% 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
Red23%
Green73%
Blue4%

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

Every format

HEX#afab88
HEX (8-digit)#afab88ff
RGBrgb(175, 171, 136)
RGBArgba(175, 171, 136, 1)
HSLhsl(54, 20%, 61%)
HSV / HSBhsv(54, 22%, 69%)
HWBhwb(54 53% 31%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 2%, 22%, 31%)
LABlab(69.5 -4.4 18.6)
LCHlch(69.5 19.1 103.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.735 0.048 102.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(36.69, 40.02, 29.08)
Decimal11512712
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.671 0.533)
Web-safe#999999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #afab88;
background-color: #afab88;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #afab88;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#afab88] bg-[#afab88]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #afab88;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.671, blue: 0.533)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.671, blue: 0.533, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AFAB88</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAFAB88)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAFAB88)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(136, 171, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 171, 136)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 171, 136)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 171, 136)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.6706f, 0.5333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,171,136}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #afab88 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #afab88 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#4C4A33, #E6E5DA);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #afab88 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: #F9F8F6;
  --brand-100: #F2F2ED;
  --brand-200: #E4E2D8;
  --brand-300: #D2D0BC;
  --brand-400: #BBB89A;
  --brand-500: #afab88;
  --brand-600: #928D62;
  --brand-700: #7A7652;
  --brand-800: #625E42;
  --brand-900: #484632;
  --brand-950: #2D2C1F;
  --brand: #afab88;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9F9F6;
  --brand-border: #DEDDCE;
  --brand-hover: #A19C73;
  --brand-pressed: #8F8A60;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #222017;
    --brand-ink: #E6E5DA;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F8F6',
        100: '#F2F2ED',
        200: '#E4E2D8',
        300: '#D2D0BC',
        400: '#BBB89A',
        500: '#afab88',
        600: '#928D62',
        700: '#7A7652',
        800: '#625E42',
        900: '#484632',
        950: '#2D2C1F',
        DEFAULT: '#afab88',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F8F6,
  '100': #F2F2ED,
  '200': #E4E2D8,
  '300': #D2D0BC,
  '400': #BBB89A,
  '500': #afab88,
  '600': #928D62,
  '700': #7A7652,
  '800': #625E42,
  '900': #484632,
  '950': #2D2C1F,
);
$brand-base: #afab88;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F8F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F2F2ED", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E4E2D8", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D2D0BC", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#BBB89A", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#afab88", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#928D62", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#7A7652", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#625E42", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#484632", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2D2C1F", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #afab88 · 9.00:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.33:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.00:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #afab88 as text scores 2.33:1 on white and 9.00:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #4C4A33 at 3.86:1.

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
#7A7652 · 4.62:1
AA on white−21% L
#7A7652
The quick fox
#5B583E · 7.22:1
AAA on white−31% L
#5B583E
The quick fox
#afab88 · 9.00:1
AA on blackalready passes
#afab88
The quick fox
#afab88 · 9.00:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#afab88

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9B956A 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
#afab88 on white: 2.33:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#afab88 on black: 9.00:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #afab88 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #afab88.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.33:1AaAa
Slate 502.23:1AaAa
Slate 1002.13:1AaAa
Slate 2001.89:1AaAa
Slate 3001.57:1AaAa
Slate 4001.10:1AaAa
Slate 5002.04:1AaAa
Slate 6003.25:1AaAa
Slate 7004.44:1AaAa
Slate 8006.27:1AaAa
Slate 9007.65:1AaAa
Black9.00:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B2A886
deuteranopia · #B3AB89
tritanopia · #B5A6A1

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. #afab88 is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9F8F6
#F2F2ED
#E4E2D8
#D2D0BC
#BBB89A
#afab88
#928D62
#7A7652
#625E42
#484632
#2D2C1F
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F8F6Darkest = 950 · #2D2C1FText 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 0.012 102.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.019 102.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.029 102.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.038 102.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.045 102.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.048 102.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.048 102.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.045 102.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.041 102.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.034 102.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.027 102.1);
}

Colors that work with #afab88

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#F9F9F6
Tinted page background
Border#DEDDCE
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#89855C
Captions on the surface
Accent#4E5F7E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#4C4A33
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5F4F0
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#222017
Dark-mode background
Hover#A19C73
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8F8A60
Two steps down
Disabled#DCDACB
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C0BB8B
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 #afab88

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

Works well for
  • 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
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Thin strokes and 1px borders — they disappear on light UI
  • 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 #4C4A33
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9B956A

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

optimisticalertcheap-and-cheerfulvisible

The most visible hue at low light levels, which is why it owns warnings, hazard tape and value retail.

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

Almost never passes contrast against white. Treat it as a surface or a marker, not as text.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight39/100
  • 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#888CAF
Analogous left#AF9888
Analogous right#A0AF88
Split-complement 1#88A0AF
Split-complement 2#9888AF
Triadic 1#88AFAB
Triadic 2#AB88AF
Tetradic#88AF98
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°54°

#afab88 sits at 54°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green67.1%
Blue53.3%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
171
0xab
B · 0–255
136
0x88

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta2.3%
Yellow22.3%
Key (black)31.4%

Total ink coverage is 56%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#afab88 text on a black background

contrast 9.00:1

Card sample

#afab88 text on a white background

contrast 2.33:1

Card sample

#afab88 on grey

2.13:1

#afab88 on its own surface

2.21:1

#afab88 on its dark surface

7.00:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #afab88;
Background color
Panel with #afab88 background
background-color: #afab88;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #afab88;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 171, 136, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 171, 136, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #afab88;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #afab88, #99AF88);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afab88, #8FAF88);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #afab88;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #afab88;
caret-color: #afab88;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #afab88;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5F4F0;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #afab88;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#afab88 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #afab88 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, 171, 136, 0.5)
rgb(175 171 136 / 50%)
#afab8880
hsl(54 20% 61% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #afab88 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#afab881a#F7F7F3
20%#afab8833#EFEEE7
40%#afab8866#DFDDCF
60%#afab8899#CFCDB8
80%#afab88cc#BFBCA0

Gradients from #afab88

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, #C8C5AD, #afab88 45%, #4C4A33);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #afab88, #86A376);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afab88, #888CAF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D4D2BF 0%, #afab88 45%, #4C4A33 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F9F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C4B0A7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #ACBB9A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #4C4A33 0%, transparent 65%), #afab88;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #afab88

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.

#afab88 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
RetailLeisureEnergyWarning systems
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 9.00:1.

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.

#afab88, answered

What color is #afab88?

#afab88 is a balanced soft yellow, closest to Dark Khaki (ΔE2000 9.5). It sits at 54° on the hue wheel with 20% saturation and 61% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #afab88?

rgb(175, 171, 136) — 175 red, 171 green and 136 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 67.1% / 53.3% by channel.

What is #afab88 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(54, 20%, 61%) and hsv(54, 22%, 69%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #afab88 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4002 and perceived brightness is 66%, so black text on it reaches 9.00:1.

Should I use black or white text on #afab88?

Black. It scores 9.00:1 against #afab88, versus 2.33:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #afab88 accessible on a white background?

#afab88 on white scores 2.33:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #7A7652 to reach 4.5:1, or #5B583E for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #afab88?

#888CAF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #88A0AF and #9888AF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #afab88?

For interface work: #F9F9F6 as the surface, #DEDDCE for borders, #89855C for secondary text, #4E5F7E as an accent and #4C4A33 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AF9888 and #A0AF88 stays calm, while #888CAF is the loudest partner.

What is #afab88 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 2%, 22%, 31%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #afab88 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 33 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AF9D88; nudged cooler, #A6B186.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #afab88?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 21 away. That is a visible difference, so define #afab88 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #afab88 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#afab88] or text-[#afab88], 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 #afab88 with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 171, 136, 0.5), or #afab8880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7D5C4; over black, #585644.

Is #afab88 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999999, ΔE2000 14.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #afab88 mean?

As a yellow, it reads optimistic, alert, cheap-and-cheerful. The most visible hue at low light levels, which is why it owns warnings, hazard tape and value retail. At this moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #afab88?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C8C5AD, #afab88 45%, #4C4A33). For more colour, a short hue run to #86A376 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #afab88 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #afab88 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.