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orange · warm

#ecac71

a light, electric orange · warm · closest name: Sandy Brown

Token name suggestion: Linen Apricot

RGB
236, 172, 113
HSL
29°, 76%, 68%
CMYK
0, 27, 52, 8
Luminance
0.4853

#ecac71 is a light electric orange, 29° on the wheel and 1/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.71:1). As text it scores 1.96:1 on white — use #B16118 instead. Nearest name is Sandy Brown, nearest Tailwind family is amber.

hsl(29 76% 68%)rgb(236 172 113)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ecac71 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ecac71
Hue
29°
orange
Saturation
76%
electric
Lightness
68%
light
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
74%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4853
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
1/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
10.71:1
Closest name
Sandy Brown
ΔE2000 3.6
Chroma
42.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.792
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
amber
500 · ΔE 10.6
Web-safe
#FF9966
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue29° of 360°
Saturation76%
Lightness68%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ecac71.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool1% 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
Red37%
Green61%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#ecac71
HEX (8-digit)#ecac71ff
RGBrgb(236, 172, 113)
RGBArgba(236, 172, 113, 1)
HSLhsl(29, 76%, 68%)
HSV / HSBhsv(29, 52%, 93%)
HWBhwb(29 44% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 27%, 52%, 8%)
LABlab(75.2 16.9 39.4)
LCHlch(75.2 42.9 66.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.792 0.107 63.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(52.33, 48.53, 22.23)
Decimal15510641
Display P3color(display-p3 0.925 0.675 0.443)
Web-safe#FF9966

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ecac71;
background-color: #ecac71;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ecac71;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ecac71] bg-[#ecac71]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ecac71;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.925, green: 0.675, blue: 0.443)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.925, green: 0.675, blue: 0.443, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ECAC71</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFECAC71)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFECAC71)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(113, 172, 236)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(236, 172, 113)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(236, 172, 113)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 236, 172, 113)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9255f, 0.6745f, 0.4431f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{236,172,113}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ecac71 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ecac71 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#703E0F, #EEE0D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ecac71 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: #FCF7F3;
  --brand-100: #F9EFE7;
  --brand-200: #F4DDC8;
  --brand-300: #F2C59C;
  --brand-400: #ecac71;
  --brand-500: #E58B39;
  --brand-600: #D8771D;
  --brand-700: #B46318;
  --brand-800: #904F13;
  --brand-900: #683B12;
  --brand-950: #41250B;
  --brand: #ecac71;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF7F4;
  --brand-border: #EDD5C0;
  --brand-hover: #E89A51;
  --brand-pressed: #E48732;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241C14;
    --brand-ink: #EEE0D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FCF7F3',
        100: '#F9EFE7',
        200: '#F4DDC8',
        300: '#F2C59C',
        400: '#ecac71',
        500: '#E58B39',
        600: '#D8771D',
        700: '#B46318',
        800: '#904F13',
        900: '#683B12',
        950: '#41250B',
        DEFAULT: '#ecac71',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FCF7F3,
  '100': #F9EFE7,
  '200': #F4DDC8,
  '300': #F2C59C,
  '400': #ecac71,
  '500': #E58B39,
  '600': #D8771D,
  '700': #B46318,
  '800': #904F13,
  '900': #683B12,
  '950': #41250B,
);
$brand-base: #ecac71;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FCF7F3", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F9EFE7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F4DDC8", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#F2C59C", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#ecac71", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#E58B39", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#D8771D", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#B46318", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#904F13", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#683B12", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#41250B", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ecac71 · 10.71:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.96:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.71:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ecac71 as text scores 1.96:1 on white and 10.71:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #703E0F at 4.49:1.

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
#B16118 · 4.57:1
AA on white−29% L
#B16118
The quick fox
#844912 · 7.14:1
AAA on white−39% L
#844912
The quick fox
#ecac71 · 10.71:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ecac71
The quick fox
#ecac71 · 10.71:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ecac71

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #DE7A1E 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
#ecac71 on white: 1.96:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ecac71 on black: 10.71:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ecac71 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ecac71.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.96:1AaAa
Slate 501.87:1AaAa
Slate 1001.79:1AaAa
Slate 2001.59:1AaAa
Slate 3001.32:1AaAa
Slate 4001.31:1AaAa
Slate 5002.43:1AaAa
Slate 6003.86:1AaAa
Slate 7005.28:1AaAa
Slate 8007.46:1AaAa
Slate 9009.10:1AaAa
Black10.71:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C0B06C
deuteranopia · #CFBF72
tritanopia · #FE9E9D

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. #ecac71 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.

#FCF7F3
#F9EFE7
#F4DDC8
#F2C59C
#ecac71
#E58B39
#D8771D
#B46318
#904F13
#683B12
#41250B
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #FCF7F3Darkest = 950 · #41250BText step on white = 800
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 63.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.043 63.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.064 63.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.083 63.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.098 63.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.107 63.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.107 63.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.100 63.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.090 63.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.075 63.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.059 63.0);
}

Colors that work with #ecac71

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#FAF7F4
Tinted page background
Border#EDD5C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B714B
Captions on the surface
Accent#1492B8
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#703E0F
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FCF2E9
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241C14
Dark-mode background
Hover#E89A51
One step down in lightness
Pressed#E48732
Two steps down
Disabled#ECE6E1
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#F5B67C
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 #ecac71

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
  • 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 #703E0F
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #DE7A1E

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.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

Hard to make feel premium, and it collides with the "caution" band in status systems.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight32/100
  • 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#71B1EC
Analogous left#EC7173
Analogous right#ECEA71
Split-complement 1#71ECEA
Split-complement 2#7173EC
Triadic 1#71ECAC
Triadic 2#AC71EC
Tetradic#73EC71
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°29°

#ecac71 sits at 29°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red92.5%
Green67.5%
Blue44.3%
R · 0–255
236
0xec
G · 0–255
172
0xac
B · 0–255
113
0x71

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta27.1%
Yellow52.1%
Key (black)7.5%

Total ink coverage is 87%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ecac71 text on a black background

contrast 10.71:1

Card sample

#ecac71 text on a white background

contrast 1.96:1

Card sample

#ecac71 on grey

1.79:1

#ecac71 on its own surface

1.84:1

#ecac71 on its dark surface

8.56:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ecac71;
Background color
Panel with #ecac71 background
background-color: #ecac71;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ecac71;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(236, 172, 113, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(236, 172, 113, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ecac71;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ecac71, #DAEC71);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecac71, #BBEC71);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ecac71;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ecac71;
caret-color: #ecac71;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ecac71;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FCF2E9;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ecac71;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ecac71 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ecac71 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(236, 172, 113, 0.5)
rgb(236 172 113 / 50%)
#ecac7180
hsl(29 76% 68% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ecac71 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ecac711a#FDF7F1
20%#ecac7133#FBEEE3
40%#ecac7166#F7DEC6
60%#ecac7199#F4CDAA
80%#ecac71cc#F0BD8D

Gradients from #ecac71

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, #F3CBA7, #ecac71 45%, #703E0F);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ecac71, #C7E856);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecac71, #71B1EC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F7DBC2 0%, #ecac71 45%, #703E0F 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF7F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F29EA7 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E9F08C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #703E0F 0%, transparent 65%), #ecac71;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ecac71

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.

#ecac71 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
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

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 10.71:1.

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.

#ecac71, answered

What color is #ecac71?

#ecac71 is a light electric orange, closest to Sandy Brown (ΔE2000 3.6). It sits at 29° on the hue wheel with 76% saturation and 68% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ecac71?

rgb(236, 172, 113) — 236 red, 172 green and 113 blue out of 255, or 92.5% / 67.5% / 44.3% by channel.

What is #ecac71 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(29, 76%, 68%) and hsv(29, 52%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ecac71 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4853 and perceived brightness is 74%, so black text on it reaches 10.71:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ecac71?

Black. It scores 10.71:1 against #ecac71, versus 1.96:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ecac71 accessible on a white background?

#ecac71 on white scores 1.96:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #B16118 to reach 4.5:1, or #844912 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ecac71?

#71B1EC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #71ECEA and #7173EC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ecac71?

For interface work: #FAF7F4 as the surface, #EDD5C0 for borders, #9B714B for secondary text, #1492B8 as an accent and #703E0F for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #EC7173 and #ECEA71 stays calm, while #71B1EC is the loudest partner.

What is #ecac71 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 27%, 52%, 8%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #ecac71 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 1 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #EFB587; nudged cooler, #EE7E6F.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ecac71?

The amber family — its 500 step is #f59e0b, ΔE2000 10.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ecac71 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ecac71 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ecac71] or text-[#ecac71], 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 #ecac71 with 50% opacity?

rgba(236, 172, 113, 0.5), or #ecac7180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #F6D6B8; over black, #765639.

Is #ecac71 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9966, ΔE2000 9.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ecac71 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 chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #ecac71?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F3CBA7, #ecac71 45%, #703E0F). For more colour, a short hue run to #C7E856 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ecac71 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ecac71 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.