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orange · warm

#bc9c84

a balanced, soft orange · warm · closest name: Tan

Token name suggestion: True Apricot

RGB
188, 156, 132
HSL
26°, 30%, 63%
CMYK
0, 17, 30, 26
Luminance
0.3613

#bc9c84 is a balanced soft orange, 26° on the wheel and 10/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.23:1). As text it scores 2.55:1 on white — use #946D50 instead. Nearest name is Tan, nearest Tailwind family is amber.

hsl(26 30% 63%)rgb(188 156 132)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bc9c84 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bc9c84
Hue
26°
orange
Saturation
30%
soft
Lightness
63%
balanced
Brightness
74%
HSV value
Perceived
64%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3613
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
10/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
8.23:1
Closest name
Tan
ΔE2000 8.8
Chroma
18.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.715
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
amber
500 · ΔE 19.6
Web-safe
#CC9999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue26° of 360°
Saturation30%
Lightness63%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bc9c84.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool10% 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
Red30%
Green66%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#bc9c84
HEX (8-digit)#bc9c84ff
RGBrgb(188, 156, 132)
RGBArgba(188, 156, 132, 1)
HSLhsl(26, 30%, 63%)
HSV / HSBhsv(26, 30%, 74%)
HWBhwb(26 52% 26%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 17%, 30%, 26%)
LABlab(66.6 8.3 17.0)
LCHlch(66.6 18.9 64.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.715 0.051 58.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(36.79, 36.14, 26.86)
Decimal12360836
Display P3color(display-p3 0.737 0.612 0.518)
Web-safe#CC9999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bc9c84;
background-color: #bc9c84;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bc9c84;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bc9c84] bg-[#bc9c84]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bc9c84;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.737, green: 0.612, blue: 0.518)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.737, green: 0.612, blue: 0.518, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BC9C84</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBC9C84)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBC9C84)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(132, 156, 188)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(188, 156, 132)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(188, 156, 132)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 188, 156, 132)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7373f, 0.6118f, 0.5176f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{188,156,132}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bc9c84 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bc9c84 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#533D2D, #E9DFD7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bc9c84 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: #F9F7F6;
  --brand-100: #F3EFEC;
  --brand-200: #E6DDD5;
  --brand-300: #D7C5B6;
  --brand-400: #bc9c84;
  --brand-500: #B08A6E;
  --brand-600: #9F7556;
  --brand-700: #846248;
  --brand-800: #6A4E3A;
  --brand-900: #4E3B2D;
  --brand-950: #31251C;
  --brand: #bc9c84;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF7F5;
  --brand-border: #E2D4CA;
  --brand-hover: #AF896D;
  --brand-pressed: #A17758;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241B14;
    --brand-ink: #E9DFD7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F7F6',
        100: '#F3EFEC',
        200: '#E6DDD5',
        300: '#D7C5B6',
        400: '#bc9c84',
        500: '#B08A6E',
        600: '#9F7556',
        700: '#846248',
        800: '#6A4E3A',
        900: '#4E3B2D',
        950: '#31251C',
        DEFAULT: '#bc9c84',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F7F6,
  '100': #F3EFEC,
  '200': #E6DDD5,
  '300': #D7C5B6,
  '400': #bc9c84,
  '500': #B08A6E,
  '600': #9F7556,
  '700': #846248,
  '800': #6A4E3A,
  '900': #4E3B2D,
  '950': #31251C,
);
$brand-base: #bc9c84;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F7F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3EFEC", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E6DDD5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D7C5B6", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#bc9c84", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#B08A6E", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9F7556", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#846248", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6A4E3A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4E3B2D", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#31251C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bc9c84 · 8.23:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.55:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.23:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bc9c84 as text scores 2.55:1 on white and 8.23:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #533D2D at 3.97:1.

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
#946D50 · 4.60:1
AA on white−18% L
#946D50
The quick fox
#6F523D · 7.12:1
AAA on white−29% L
#6F523D
The quick fox
#bc9c84 · 8.23:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bc9c84
The quick fox
#bc9c84 · 8.23:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bc9c84

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #B18C70 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
#bc9c84 on white: 2.55:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bc9c84 on black: 8.23:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bc9c84 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bc9c84.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.55:1AaAa
Slate 502.44:1AaAa
Slate 1002.33:1AaAa
Slate 2002.07:1AaAa
Slate 3001.72:1AaAa
Slate 4001.00:1AaAa
Slate 5001.86:1AaAa
Slate 6002.97:1AaAa
Slate 7004.06:1AaAa
Slate 8005.73:1AaAa
Slate 9006.99:1AaAa
Black8.23:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A69E82
deuteranopia · #ADA584
tritanopia · #C69695

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. #bc9c84 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.

#F9F7F6
#F3EFEC
#E6DDD5
#D7C5B6
#bc9c84
#B08A6E
#9F7556
#846248
#6A4E3A
#4E3B2D
#31251C
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F9F7F6Darkest = 950 · #31251CText 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 0.013 58.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.020 58.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.031 58.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.040 58.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.047 58.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.051 58.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.051 58.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.048 58.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.043 58.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.036 58.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.028 58.7);
}

Colors that work with #bc9c84

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#FAF7F5
Tinted page background
Border#E2D4CA
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#956E51
Captions on the surface
Accent#447B88
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#533D2D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6F2EE
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241B14
Dark-mode background
Hover#AF896D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A17758
Two steps down
Disabled#E1D7CF
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CCA589
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 #bc9c84

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
  • 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 #533D2D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #B18C70

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
  • Weight37/100
  • 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#84A4BC
Analogous left#BC8488
Analogous right#BCB884
Split-complement 1#84BCB8
Split-complement 2#8488BC
Triadic 1#84BC9C
Triadic 2#9C84BC
Tetradic#88BC84
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°26°

#bc9c84 sits at 26°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.7%
Green61.2%
Blue51.8%
R · 0–255
188
0xbc
G · 0–255
156
0x9c
B · 0–255
132
0x84

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta17.0%
Yellow29.8%
Key (black)26.3%

Total ink coverage is 73%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bc9c84 text on a black background

contrast 8.23:1

Card sample

#bc9c84 text on a white background

contrast 2.55:1

Card sample

#bc9c84 on grey

2.33:1

#bc9c84 on its own surface

2.39:1

#bc9c84 on its dark surface

6.62:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bc9c84;
Background color
Panel with #bc9c84 background
background-color: #bc9c84;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bc9c84;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(188, 156, 132, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(188, 156, 132, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bc9c84;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bc9c84, #B7BC84);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bc9c84, #A9BC84);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bc9c84;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bc9c84;
caret-color: #bc9c84;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bc9c84;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6F2EE;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bc9c84;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bc9c84 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bc9c84 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(188, 156, 132, 0.5)
rgb(188 156 132 / 50%)
#bc9c8480
hsl(26 30% 63% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bc9c84 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bc9c841a#F8F5F3
20%#bc9c8433#F2EBE6
40%#bc9c8466#E4D7CE
60%#bc9c8499#D7C4B5
80%#bc9c84cc#C9B09D

Gradients from #bc9c84

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, #D2BCAB, #bc9c84 45%, #533D2D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bc9c84, #A6B170);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bc9c84, #84A4BC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DCCCBF 0%, #bc9c84 45%, #533D2D 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF7F5, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CEA5AB 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C6C798 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #533D2D 0%, transparent 65%), #bc9c84;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bc9c84

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.

#bc9c84 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 8.23:1.

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.

#bc9c84, answered

What color is #bc9c84?

#bc9c84 is a balanced soft orange, closest to Tan (ΔE2000 8.8). It sits at 26° on the hue wheel with 30% saturation and 63% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #bc9c84?

rgb(188, 156, 132) — 188 red, 156 green and 132 blue out of 255, or 73.7% / 61.2% / 51.8% by channel.

What is #bc9c84 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(26, 30%, 63%) and hsv(26, 30%, 74%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bc9c84 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3613 and perceived brightness is 64%, so black text on it reaches 8.23:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bc9c84?

Black. It scores 8.23:1 against #bc9c84, versus 2.55:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bc9c84 accessible on a white background?

#bc9c84 on white scores 2.55:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #946D50 to reach 4.5:1, or #6F523D for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bc9c84?

#84A4BC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #84BCB8 and #8488BC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bc9c84?

For interface work: #FAF7F5 as the surface, #E2D4CA for borders, #956E51 for secondary text, #447B88 as an accent and #533D2D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BC8488 and #BCB884 stays calm, while #84A4BC is the loudest partner.

What is #bc9c84 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 17%, 30%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #bc9c84 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 10 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C5A994; nudged cooler, #BE8682.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bc9c84?

The amber family — its 500 step is #f59e0b, ΔE2000 19.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bc9c84 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bc9c84 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bc9c84] or text-[#bc9c84], 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 #bc9c84 with 50% opacity?

rgba(188, 156, 132, 0.5), or #bc9c8480 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DECEC2; over black, #5E4E42.

Is #bc9c84 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9999, ΔE2000 13.1 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bc9c84 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 #bc9c84?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D2BCAB, #bc9c84 45%, #533D2D). For more colour, a short hue run to #A6B170 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bc9c84 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bc9c84 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.