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orange · warm

#bc9c88

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

Token name suggestion: True Apricot

RGB
188, 156, 136
HSL
23°, 28%, 64%
CMYK
0, 17, 28, 26
Luminance
0.3625

#bc9c88 is a balanced soft orange, 23° on the wheel and 13/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.25:1). As text it scores 2.55:1 on white — use #956D54 instead. Nearest name is Tan, nearest Tailwind family is stone.

hsl(23 28% 64%)rgb(188 156 136)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bc9c88 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bc9c88
Hue
23°
orange
Saturation
28%
soft
Lightness
64%
balanced
Brightness
74%
HSV value
Perceived
64%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3625
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
13/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
8.25:1
Closest name
Tan
ΔE2000 10
Chroma
17.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.716
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
stone
500 · ΔE 19.6
Web-safe
#CC9999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue23° of 360°
Saturation28%
Lightness64%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bc9c88.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool13% 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
Red29%
Green66%
Blue5%

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

Every format

HEX#bc9c88
HEX (8-digit)#bc9c88ff
RGBrgb(188, 156, 136)
RGBArgba(188, 156, 136, 1)
HSLhsl(23, 28%, 64%)
HSV / HSBhsv(23, 28%, 74%)
HWBhwb(23 53% 26%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 17%, 28%, 26%)
LABlab(66.7 8.8 14.9)
LCHlch(66.7 17.3 59.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.716 0.048 53.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(37.07, 36.25, 28.33)
Decimal12360840
Display P3color(display-p3 0.737 0.612 0.533)
Web-safe#CC9999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bc9c88;
background-color: #bc9c88;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bc9c88;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bc9c88] bg-[#bc9c88]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bc9c88;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.737, green: 0.612, blue: 0.533)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.737, green: 0.612, blue: 0.533, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BC9C88</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBC9C88)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBC9C88)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(136, 156, 188)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(188, 156, 136)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(188, 156, 136)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 188, 156, 136)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7373f, 0.6118f, 0.5333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{188,156,136}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bc9c88 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bc9c88 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#523C2E, #E9DED8);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bc9c88 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: #E6DCD6;
  --brand-300: #D7C3B7;
  --brand-400: #bc9c88;
  --brand-500: #AE886F;
  --brand-600: #9D7358;
  --brand-700: #835F49;
  --brand-800: #684C3B;
  --brand-900: #4D3A2D;
  --brand-950: #30241C;
  --brand: #bc9c88;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9F7F5;
  --brand-border: #E2D4CB;
  --brand-hover: #AF8971;
  --brand-pressed: #A2765B;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241A14;
    --brand-ink: #E9DED8;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F7F6',
        100: '#F3EFEC',
        200: '#E6DCD6',
        300: '#D7C3B7',
        400: '#bc9c88',
        500: '#AE886F',
        600: '#9D7358',
        700: '#835F49',
        800: '#684C3B',
        900: '#4D3A2D',
        950: '#30241C',
        DEFAULT: '#bc9c88',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F7F6,
  '100': #F3EFEC,
  '200': #E6DCD6,
  '300': #D7C3B7,
  '400': #bc9c88,
  '500': #AE886F,
  '600': #9D7358,
  '700': #835F49,
  '800': #684C3B,
  '900': #4D3A2D,
  '950': #30241C,
);
$brand-base: #bc9c88;
$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": "#E6DCD6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D7C3B7", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#bc9c88", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#AE886F", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9D7358", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#835F49", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#684C3B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4D3A2D", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#30241C", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bc9c88 · 8.25:1
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 · 8.25:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bc9c88 as text scores 2.55:1 on white and 8.25:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #523C2E at 4.03:1.

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
#956D54 · 4.57:1
AA on white−18% L
#956D54
The quick fox
#71523F · 7.05:1
AAA on white−29% L
#71523F
The quick fox
#bc9c88 · 8.25:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bc9c88
The quick fox
#bc9c88 · 8.25:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bc9c88

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #B18C74 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
#bc9c88 on white: 2.55:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bc9c88 on black: 8.25:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bc9c88 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bc9c88.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.55:1AaAa
Slate 502.43:1AaAa
Slate 1002.32:1AaAa
Slate 2002.07:1AaAa
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 9007.01:1AaAa
Black8.25:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #A59E87
deuteranopia · #ACA588
tritanopia · #C69696

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. #bc9c88 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
#E6DCD6
#D7C3B7
#bc9c88
#AE886F
#9D7358
#835F49
#684C3B
#4D3A2D
#30241C
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #F9F7F6Darkest = 950 · #30241CText 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 53.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.019 53.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.028 53.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.037 53.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.044 53.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.048 53.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.048 53.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.045 53.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.040 53.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.033 53.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.026 53.8);
}

Colors that work with #bc9c88

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#F9F7F5
Tinted page background
Border#E2D4CB
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#936B53
Captions on the surface
Accent#457E87
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#523C2E
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6F1EF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241A14
Dark-mode background
Hover#AF8971
One step down in lightness
Pressed#A2765B
Two steps down
Disabled#E2D8D2
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#CCA58D
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 #bc9c88

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 #523C2E
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #B18C74

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#88A8BC
Analogous left#BC888E
Analogous right#BCB688
Split-complement 1#88BCB6
Split-complement 2#888EBC
Triadic 1#88BC9C
Triadic 2#9C88BC
Tetradic#8EBC88
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°23°

#bc9c88 sits at 23°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.7%
Green61.2%
Blue53.3%
R · 0–255
188
0xbc
G · 0–255
156
0x9c
B · 0–255
136
0x88

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta17.0%
Yellow27.7%
Key (black)26.3%

Total ink coverage is 71%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bc9c88 text on a black background

contrast 8.25:1

Card sample

#bc9c88 text on a white background

contrast 2.55:1

Card sample

#bc9c88 on grey

2.32:1

#bc9c88 on its own surface

2.38:1

#bc9c88 on its dark surface

6.69:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bc9c88;
Background color
Panel with #bc9c88 background
background-color: #bc9c88;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bc9c88;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(188, 156, 136, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(188, 156, 136, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bc9c88;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bc9c88, #B9BC88);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bc9c88, #ACBC88);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bc9c88;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bc9c88;
caret-color: #bc9c88;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bc9c88;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6F1EF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bc9c88;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bc9c88 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bc9c88 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, 136, 0.5)
rgb(188 156 136 / 50%)
#bc9c8880
hsl(23 28% 64% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bc9c88 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bc9c881a#F8F5F3
20%#bc9c8833#F2EBE7
40%#bc9c8866#E4D7CF
60%#bc9c8899#D7C4B8
80%#bc9c88cc#C9B0A0

Gradients from #bc9c88

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, #D2BDAF, #bc9c88 45%, #523C2E);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bc9c88, #A9B174);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bc9c88, #88A8BC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #DDCDC3 0%, #bc9c88 45%, #523C2E 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F7F5, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CEA9B0 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C7C69B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #523C2E 0%, transparent 65%), #bc9c88;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bc9c88

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.

#bc9c88 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 8.25:1.

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.

#bc9c88, answered

What color is #bc9c88?

#bc9c88 is a balanced soft orange, closest to Tan (ΔE2000 10). It sits at 23° on the hue wheel with 28% saturation and 64% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #bc9c88?

rgb(188, 156, 136) — 188 red, 156 green and 136 blue out of 255, or 73.7% / 61.2% / 53.3% by channel.

What is #bc9c88 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(23, 28%, 64%) and hsv(23, 28%, 74%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bc9c88 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3625 and perceived brightness is 64%, so black text on it reaches 8.25:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bc9c88?

Black. It scores 8.25:1 against #bc9c88, versus 2.55:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bc9c88 accessible on a white background?

#bc9c88 on white scores 2.55:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #956D54 to reach 4.5:1, or #71523F for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bc9c88?

#88A8BC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #88BCB6 and #888EBC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bc9c88?

For interface work: #F9F7F5 as the surface, #E2D4CB for borders, #936B53 for secondary text, #457E87 as an accent and #523C2E for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BC888E and #BCB688 stays calm, while #88A8BC is the loudest partner.

What is #bc9c88 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 17%, 28%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #bc9c88 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 13 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C5AB98; nudged cooler, #BE8786.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bc9c88?

The stone family — its 500 step is #78716c, ΔE2000 19.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bc9c88 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bc9c88 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bc9c88] or text-[#bc9c88], 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 #bc9c88 with 50% opacity?

rgba(188, 156, 136, 0.5), or #bc9c8880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DECEC4; over black, #5E4E44.

Is #bc9c88 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9999, ΔE2000 11.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bc9c88 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 #bc9c88?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #D2BDAF, #bc9c88 45%, #523C2E). For more colour, a short hue run to #A9B174 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bc9c88 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bc9c88 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.