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orange · warm

#ecaf36

a balanced, electric orange · warm · closest name: Goldenrod

Token name suggestion: Signal Marmalade

RGB
236, 175, 54
HSL
40°, 83%, 57%
CMYK
0, 26, 77, 8
Luminance
0.4876

#ecaf36 is a balanced electric orange, 40° on the wheel and 8/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.75:1). As text it scores 1.95:1 on white — use #996B0F instead. Nearest name is Goldenrod, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(40 83% 57%)rgb(236 175 54)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ecaf36 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ecaf36
Hue
40°
orange
Saturation
83%
electric
Lightness
57%
balanced
Brightness
93%
HSV value
Perceived
73%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4876
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
8/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
10.75:1
Closest name
Goldenrod
ΔE2000 4
Chroma
67.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.791
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 4.2
Web-safe
#FF9933
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue40° of 360°
Saturation83%
Lightness57%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ecaf36.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool8% 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%
Green63%
Blue1%

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

Every format

HEX#ecaf36
HEX (8-digit)#ecaf36ff
RGBrgb(236, 175, 54)
RGBArgba(236, 175, 54, 1)
HSLhsl(40, 83%, 57%)
HSV / HSBhsv(40, 77%, 93%)
HWBhwb(40 21% 7%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 26%, 77%, 8%)
LABlab(75.3 11.7 66.5)
LCHlch(75.3 67.5 80.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.791 0.147 80.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(50.59, 48.76, 10.24)
Decimal15511350
Display P3color(display-p3 0.925 0.686 0.212)
Web-safe#FF9933

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ecaf36;
background-color: #ecaf36;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ecaf36;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ecaf36] bg-[#ecaf36]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ecaf36;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.925, green: 0.686, blue: 0.212)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.925, green: 0.686, blue: 0.212, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ECAF36</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFECAF36)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFECAF36)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(54, 175, 236)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(236, 175, 54)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(236, 175, 54)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 236, 175, 54)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9255f, 0.6863f, 0.2118f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{236,175,54}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ecaf36 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ecaf36 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#74510B, #EEE5D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ecaf36 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: #FCF9F2;
  --brand-100: #FAF3E6;
  --brand-200: #F6E6C6;
  --brand-300: #F5D699;
  --brand-400: #F0C265;
  --brand-500: #ecaf36;
  --brand-600: #E09C15;
  --brand-700: #BA8212;
  --brand-800: #95680E;
  --brand-900: #6C4D0F;
  --brand-950: #433009;
  --brand: #ecaf36;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF8F4;
  --brand-border: #EDDEC0;
  --brand-hover: #E8A216;
  --brand-pressed: #C88B13;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241F14;
    --brand-ink: #EEE5D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FCF9F2',
        100: '#FAF3E6',
        200: '#F6E6C6',
        300: '#F5D699',
        400: '#F0C265',
        500: '#ecaf36',
        600: '#E09C15',
        700: '#BA8212',
        800: '#95680E',
        900: '#6C4D0F',
        950: '#433009',
        DEFAULT: '#ecaf36',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FCF9F2,
  '100': #FAF3E6,
  '200': #F6E6C6,
  '300': #F5D699,
  '400': #F0C265,
  '500': #ecaf36,
  '600': #E09C15,
  '700': #BA8212,
  '800': #95680E,
  '900': #6C4D0F,
  '950': #433009,
);
$brand-base: #ecaf36;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FCF9F2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FAF3E6", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F6E6C6", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#F5D699", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F0C265", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#ecaf36", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E09C15", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#BA8212", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#95680E", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#6C4D0F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#433009", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ecaf36 · 10.75:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.95:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.75:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ecaf36 as text scores 1.95:1 on white and 10.75:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #74510B at 3.68:1.

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
#996B0F · 4.70:1
AA on white−24% L
#996B0F
The quick fox
#74510B · 7.18:1
AAA on white−32% L
#74510B
The quick fox
#ecaf36 · 10.75:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ecaf36
The quick fox
#ecaf36 · 10.75:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ecaf36

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #C38812 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
#ecaf36 on white: 1.95:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ecaf36 on black: 10.75:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ecaf36 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ecaf36.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.95:1AaAa
Slate 501.87:1AaAa
Slate 1001.78:1AaAa
Slate 2001.58:1AaAa
Slate 3001.32:1AaAa
Slate 4001.31:1AaAa
Slate 5002.44:1AaAa
Slate 6003.88:1AaAa
Slate 7005.30:1AaAa
Slate 8007.49:1AaAa
Slate 9009.14:1AaAa
Black10.75:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C7B021
deuteranopia · #D5C03B
tritanopia · #FF9D97

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. #ecaf36 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.

#FCF9F2
#FAF3E6
#F6E6C6
#F5D699
#F0C265
#ecaf36
#E09C15
#BA8212
#95680E
#6C4D0F
#433009
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #FCF9F2Darkest = 950 · #433009Text 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 0.037 80.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.059 80.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.088 80.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.115 80.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.135 80.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.147 80.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.147 80.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.138 80.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.124 80.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.103 80.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.081 80.0);
}

Colors that work with #ecaf36

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#FAF8F4
Tinted page background
Border#EDDEC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B804B
Captions on the surface
Accent#0E75BE
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#74510B
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FDF6E8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241F14
Dark-mode background
Hover#E8A216
One step down in lightness
Pressed#C88B13
Two steps down
Disabled#D5CDBD
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#F8BA3F
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 #ecaf36

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
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • 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 #74510B
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #C38812

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 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
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight43/100
  • 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#3673EC
Analogous left#EC5436
Analogous right#CEEC36
Split-complement 1#36CEEC
Split-complement 2#5436EC
Triadic 1#36ECAF
Triadic 2#AF36EC
Tetradic#36EC54
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°40°

#ecaf36 sits at 40°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red92.5%
Green68.6%
Blue21.2%
R · 0–255
236
0xec
G · 0–255
175
0xaf
B · 0–255
54
0x36

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta25.8%
Yellow77.1%
Key (black)7.5%

Total ink coverage is 110%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ecaf36 text on a black background

contrast 10.75:1

Card sample

#ecaf36 text on a white background

contrast 1.95:1

Card sample

#ecaf36 on grey

1.78:1

#ecaf36 on its own surface

1.84:1

#ecaf36 on its dark surface

8.39:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ecaf36;
Background color
Panel with #ecaf36 background
background-color: #ecaf36;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ecaf36;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(236, 175, 54, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(236, 175, 54, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ecaf36;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ecaf36, #B0EC36);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecaf36, #82EC36);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ecaf36;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ecaf36;
caret-color: #ecaf36;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ecaf36;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FDF6E8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ecaf36;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ecaf36 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ecaf36 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, 175, 54, 0.5)
rgb(236 175 54 / 50%)
#ecaf3680
hsl(40 83% 57% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ecaf36 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ecaf361a#FDF7EB
20%#ecaf3633#FBEFD7
40%#ecaf3666#F7DFAF
60%#ecaf3699#F4CF86
80%#ecaf36cc#F0BF5E

Gradients from #ecaf36

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, #F1C56E, #ecaf36 45%, #74510B);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ecaf36, #93E91A);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecaf36, #3673EC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F4D08A 0%, #ecaf36 45%, #74510B 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF8F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F07065 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C8EF52 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #74510B 0%, transparent 65%), #ecaf36;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ecaf36

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.

#ecaf36 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

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 10.75:1.

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.

#ecaf36, answered

What color is #ecaf36?

#ecaf36 is a balanced electric orange, closest to Goldenrod (ΔE2000 4). It sits at 40° on the hue wheel with 83% saturation and 57% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ecaf36?

rgb(236, 175, 54) — 236 red, 175 green and 54 blue out of 255, or 92.5% / 68.6% / 21.2% by channel.

What is #ecaf36 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(40, 83%, 57%) and hsv(40, 77%, 93%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ecaf36 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4876 and perceived brightness is 73%, so black text on it reaches 10.75:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ecaf36?

Black. It scores 10.75:1 against #ecaf36, versus 1.95:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ecaf36 accessible on a white background?

#ecaf36 on white scores 1.95:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #996B0F to reach 4.5:1, or #74510B for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ecaf36?

#3673EC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #36CEEC and #5436EC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ecaf36?

For interface work: #FAF8F4 as the surface, #EDDEC0 for borders, #9B804B for secondary text, #0E75BE as an accent and #74510B for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #EC5436 and #CEEC36 stays calm, while #3673EC is the loudest partner.

What is #ecaf36 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 26%, 77%, 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 #ecaf36 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 8 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #EC9736; nudged cooler, #E8EE34.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ecaf36?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 4.2 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ecaf36 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ecaf36 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ecaf36] or text-[#ecaf36], 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 #ecaf36 with 50% opacity?

rgba(236, 175, 54, 0.5), or #ecaf3680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #F6D79B; over black, #76581B.

Is #ecaf36 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9933, ΔE2000 11.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ecaf36 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 #ecaf36?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F1C56E, #ecaf36 45%, #74510B). For more colour, a short hue run to #93E91A keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ecaf36 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ecaf36 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.