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red · warm

#df8978

a light, vivid red · warm · closest name: Dark Salmon

Token name suggestion: Morning Cardinal

RGB
223, 137, 120
HSL
10°, 62%, 67%
CMYK
0, 39, 46, 13
Luminance
0.3494

#df8978 is a light vivid red, 10° on the wheel and 11/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (7.99:1). As text it scores 2.63:1 on white — use #CB4A30 instead. Nearest name is Dark Salmon, nearest Tailwind family is red.

hsl(10 62% 67%)rgb(223 137 120)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #df8978 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#df8978
Hue
10°
red
Saturation
62%
vivid
Lightness
67%
light
Brightness
87%
HSV value
Perceived
65%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3494
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
11/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
7.99:1
Closest name
Dark Salmon
ΔE2000 5.1
Chroma
38.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.716
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
red
500 · ΔE 14.3
Web-safe
#CC9966
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue10° of 360°
Saturation62%
Lightness67%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #df8978.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool11% 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
Red45%
Green51%
Blue4%

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

Every format

HEX#df8978
HEX (8-digit)#df8978ff
RGBrgb(223, 137, 120)
RGBArgba(223, 137, 120, 1)
HSLhsl(10, 62%, 67%)
HSV / HSBhsv(10, 46%, 87%)
HWBhwb(10 47% 13%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 39%, 46%, 13%)
LABlab(65.7 31.0 23.1)
LCHlch(65.7 38.6 36.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.716 0.109 31.9)
XYZ (D65)xyz(42.77, 34.94, 22.26)
Decimal14649720
Display P3color(display-p3 0.875 0.537 0.471)
Web-safe#CC9966

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #df8978;
background-color: #df8978;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #df8978;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#df8978] bg-[#df8978]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #df8978;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.875, green: 0.537, blue: 0.471)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.875, green: 0.537, blue: 0.471, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DF8978</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDF8978)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDF8978)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(120, 137, 223)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(223, 137, 120)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(223, 137, 120)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 223, 137, 120)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8745f, 0.5373f, 0.4706f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{223,137,120}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #df8978 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #df8978 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#672518, #EED7D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #df8978 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: #FBF5F4;
  --brand-100: #F7EBE8;
  --brand-200: #F0D2CC;
  --brand-300: #EAB0A4;
  --brand-400: #df8978;
  --brand-500: #D4604A;
  --brand-600: #C6482F;
  --brand-700: #A53C27;
  --brand-800: #84301F;
  --brand-900: #60261A;
  --brand-950: #3C1811;
  --brand: #df8978;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF5F4;
  --brand-border: #EDC7C0;
  --brand-hover: #D8705B;
  --brand-pressed: #D1573E;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241614;
    --brand-ink: #EED7D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FBF5F4',
        100: '#F7EBE8',
        200: '#F0D2CC',
        300: '#EAB0A4',
        400: '#df8978',
        500: '#D4604A',
        600: '#C6482F',
        700: '#A53C27',
        800: '#84301F',
        900: '#60261A',
        950: '#3C1811',
        DEFAULT: '#df8978',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FBF5F4,
  '100': #F7EBE8,
  '200': #F0D2CC,
  '300': #EAB0A4,
  '400': #df8978,
  '500': #D4604A,
  '600': #C6482F,
  '700': #A53C27,
  '800': #84301F,
  '900': #60261A,
  '950': #3C1811,
);
$brand-base: #df8978;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FBF5F4", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F7EBE8", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F0D2CC", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#EAB0A4", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#df8978", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#D4604A", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#C6482F", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#A53C27", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#84301F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#60261A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#3C1811", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #df8978 · 7.99:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.63:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 7.99:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #df8978 as text scores 2.63:1 on white and 7.99:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #672518 at 4.31:1.

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
#CB4A30 · 4.60:1
AA on white−18% L
#CB4A30
The quick fox
#9A3824 · 7.08:1
AAA on white−30% L
#9A3824
The quick fox
#df8978 · 7.99:1
AA on blackalready passes
#df8978
The quick fox
#df8978 · 7.99:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#df8978

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #DA7764 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
#df8978 on white: 2.63:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#df8978 on black: 7.99:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #df8978 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #df8978.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.63:1AaAa
Slate 502.51:1AaAa
Slate 1002.40:1AaAa
Slate 2002.13:1AaAa
Slate 3001.77:1AaAa
Slate 4001.03:1AaAa
Slate 5001.81:1AaAa
Slate 6002.88:1AaAa
Slate 7003.94:1AaAa
Slate 8005.56:1AaAa
Slate 9006.79:1AaAa
Black7.99:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #9D9576
deuteranopia · #B2A677
tritanopia · #F07C85

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. #df8978 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.

#FBF5F4
#F7EBE8
#F0D2CC
#EAB0A4
#df8978
#D4604A
#C6482F
#A53C27
#84301F
#60261A
#3C1811
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #FBF5F4Darkest = 950 · #3C1811Text step on white = 600
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 0.027 31.9);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.044 31.9);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.065 31.9);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.085 31.9);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.100 31.9);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.109 31.9);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.109 31.9);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.103 31.9);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.092 31.9);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.076 31.9);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.060 31.9);
}

Colors that work with #df8978

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#FAF5F4
Tinted page background
Border#EDC7C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B584B
Captions on the surface
Accent#23A99E
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#672518
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FAEDEA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241614
Dark-mode background
Hover#D8705B
One step down in lightness
Pressed#D1573E
Two steps down
Disabled#EAE0DE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#EA9381
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 #df8978

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • White text placed on it
  • 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 #672518
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #DA7764

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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

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
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight33/100
  • 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#78CEDF
Analogous left#DF789B
Analogous right#DFBD78
Split-complement 1#78DFBD
Split-complement 2#789BDF
Triadic 1#78DF89
Triadic 2#8978DF
Tetradic#9BDF78
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°10°

#df8978 sits at 10°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red87.5%
Green53.7%
Blue47.1%
R · 0–255
223
0xdf
G · 0–255
137
0x89
B · 0–255
120
0x78

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta38.6%
Yellow46.2%
Key (black)12.5%

Total ink coverage is 97%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#df8978 text on a black background

contrast 7.99:1

Card sample

#df8978 text on a white background

contrast 2.63:1

Card sample

#df8978 on grey

2.40:1

#df8978 on its own surface

2.43:1

#df8978 on its dark surface

6.66:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #df8978;
Background color
Panel with #df8978 background
background-color: #df8978;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #df8978;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(223, 137, 120, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(223, 137, 120, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #df8978;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #df8978, #DFCE78);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #df8978, #D7DF78);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #df8978;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #df8978;
caret-color: #df8978;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #df8978;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FAEDEA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #df8978;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#df8978 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #df8978 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(223, 137, 120, 0.5)
rgb(223 137 120 / 50%)
#df897880
hsl(10 62% 67% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #df8978 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#df89781a#FCF3F2
20%#df897833#F9E7E4
40%#df897866#F2D0C9
60%#df897899#ECB8AE
80%#df8978cc#E5A193

Gradients from #df8978

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, #EBB4AA, #df8978 45%, #672518);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #df8978, #D9CF5F);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #df8978, #78CEDF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F1CAC2 0%, #df8978 45%, #672518 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF5F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #E9A1BF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E5D091 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #672518 0%, transparent 65%), #df8978;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #df8978

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.

#df8978 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
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
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 7.99:1.

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.

#df8978, answered

What color is #df8978?

#df8978 is a light vivid red, closest to Dark Salmon (ΔE2000 5.1). It sits at 10° on the hue wheel with 62% saturation and 67% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #df8978?

rgb(223, 137, 120) — 223 red, 137 green and 120 blue out of 255, or 87.5% / 53.7% / 47.1% by channel.

What is #df8978 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(10, 62%, 67%) and hsv(10, 46%, 87%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #df8978 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3494 and perceived brightness is 65%, so black text on it reaches 7.99:1.

Should I use black or white text on #df8978?

Black. It scores 7.99:1 against #df8978, versus 2.63:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #df8978 accessible on a white background?

#df8978 on white scores 2.63:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #CB4A30 to reach 4.5:1, or #9A3824 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #df8978?

#78CEDF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #78DFBD and #789BDF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #df8978?

For interface work: #FAF5F4 as the surface, #EDC7C0 for borders, #9B584B for secondary text, #23A99E as an accent and #672518 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #DF789B and #DFBD78 stays calm, while #78CEDF is the loudest partner.

What is #df8978 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 39%, 46%, 13%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #df8978 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 11 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DF9C78; nudged cooler, #E1768C.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #df8978?

The red family — its 500 step is #ef4444, ΔE2000 14.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #df8978 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #df8978 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#df8978] or text-[#df8978], 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 #df8978 with 50% opacity?

rgba(223, 137, 120, 0.5), or #df897880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EFC4BC; over black, #70453C.

Is #df8978 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9966, ΔE2000 15.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #df8978 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 chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #df8978?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EBB4AA, #df8978 45%, #672518). For more colour, a short hue run to #D9CF5F keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #df8978 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #df8978 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.