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orange · warm

#f0a821

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

Token name suggestion: Studio Apricot

RGB
240, 168, 33
HSL
39°, 87%, 54%
CMYK
0, 30, 86, 6
Luminance
0.4664

#f0a821 is a balanced electric orange, 39° on the wheel and 8/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.33:1). As text it scores 2.03:1 on white — use #A06C0B instead. Nearest name is Orange, nearest Tailwind family is amber.

hsl(39 87% 54%)rgb(240 168 33)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #f0a821 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#f0a821
Hue
39°
orange
Saturation
87%
electric
Lightness
54%
balanced
Brightness
94%
HSV value
Perceived
72%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4664
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
8/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
10.33:1
Closest name
Orange
ΔE2000 3.8
Chroma
73.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.782
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
amber
500 · ΔE 4
Web-safe
#FF9933
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue39° of 360°
Saturation87%
Lightness54%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #f0a821.

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
Red40%
Green60%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#f0a821
HEX (8-digit)#f0a821ff
RGBrgb(240, 168, 33)
RGBArgba(240, 168, 33, 1)
HSLhsl(39, 87%, 54%)
HSV / HSBhsv(39, 86%, 94%)
HWBhwb(39 13% 6%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 30%, 86%, 6%)
LABlab(74.0 16.4 72.0)
LCHlch(74.0 73.9 77.1)
OKLCHoklch(0.782 0.157 76.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(50.22, 46.64, 7.80)
Decimal15771681
Display P3color(display-p3 0.941 0.659 0.129)
Web-safe#FF9933

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #f0a821;
background-color: #f0a821;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #f0a821;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#f0a821] bg-[#f0a821]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #f0a821;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.941, green: 0.659, blue: 0.129)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.941, green: 0.659, blue: 0.129, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#F0A821</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFF0A821)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFF0A821)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(33, 168, 240)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(240, 168, 33)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(240, 168, 33)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 240, 168, 33)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9412f, 0.6588f, 0.1294f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{240,168,33}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #f0a821 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #f0a821 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#775108, #EEE5D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #f0a821 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: #FDF9F2;
  --brand-100: #FAF3E5;
  --brand-200: #F7E6C4;
  --brand-300: #F8D696;
  --brand-400: #F4C161;
  --brand-500: #f0a821;
  --brand-600: #E59B10;
  --brand-700: #BF810D;
  --brand-800: #99670A;
  --brand-900: #6E4C0C;
  --brand-950: #453008;
  --brand: #f0a821;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF8F4;
  --brand-border: #EDDDC0;
  --brand-hover: #DE960F;
  --brand-pressed: #BD7F0D;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241F14;
    --brand-ink: #EEE5D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF9F2',
        100: '#FAF3E5',
        200: '#F7E6C4',
        300: '#F8D696',
        400: '#F4C161',
        500: '#f0a821',
        600: '#E59B10',
        700: '#BF810D',
        800: '#99670A',
        900: '#6E4C0C',
        950: '#453008',
        DEFAULT: '#f0a821',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF9F2,
  '100': #FAF3E5,
  '200': #F7E6C4,
  '300': #F8D696,
  '400': #F4C161,
  '500': #f0a821,
  '600': #E59B10,
  '700': #BF810D,
  '800': #99670A,
  '900': #6E4C0C,
  '950': #453008,
);
$brand-base: #f0a821;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF9F2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FAF3E5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F7E6C4", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#F8D696", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F4C161", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#f0a821", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E59B10", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#BF810D", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#99670A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#6E4C0C", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#453008", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #f0a821 · 10.33:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.03:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.33:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #f0a821 as text scores 2.03:1 on white and 10.33:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #775108 at 3.48:1.

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
#A06C0B · 4.52:1
AA on white−20% L
#A06C0B
The quick fox
#754F08 · 7.30:1
AAA on white−29% L
#754F08
The quick fox
#f0a821 · 10.33:1
AA on blackalready passes
#f0a821
The quick fox
#f0a821 · 10.33:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#f0a821

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #C6860D 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
#f0a821 on white: 2.03:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#f0a821 on black: 10.33:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #f0a821 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #f0a821.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.03:1AaAa
Slate 501.94:1AaAa
Slate 1001.86:1AaAa
Slate 2001.65:1AaAa
Slate 3001.37:1AaAa
Slate 4001.26:1AaAa
Slate 5002.34:1AaAa
Slate 6003.73:1AaAa
Slate 7005.09:1AaAa
Slate 8007.19:1AaAa
Slate 9008.78:1AaAa
Black10.33:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C2AB00
deuteranopia · #D3BD28
tritanopia · #FF9590

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. #f0a821 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.

#FDF9F2
#FAF3E5
#F7E6C4
#F8D696
#F4C161
#f0a821
#E59B10
#BF810D
#99670A
#6E4C0C
#453008
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #FDF9F2Darkest = 950 · #453008Text 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 0.039 76.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.063 76.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.094 76.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.122 76.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.144 76.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.157 76.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.157 76.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.147 76.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.132 76.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.110 76.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.086 76.3);
}

Colors that work with #f0a821

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#EDDDC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B7F4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#0978C3
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#775108
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FDF6E7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241F14
Dark-mode background
Hover#DE960F
One step down in lightness
Pressed#BD7F0D
Two steps down
Disabled#CEC5B3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#FCB329
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 #f0a821

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 #775108
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #C6860D

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
  • Weight47/100
  • 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#2169F0
Analogous left#F04021
Analogous right#D1F021
Split-complement 1#21D1F0
Split-complement 2#4021F0
Triadic 1#21F0A8
Triadic 2#A821F0
Tetradic#21F040
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°39°

#f0a821 sits at 39°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red94.1%
Green65.9%
Blue12.9%
R · 0–255
240
0xf0
G · 0–255
168
0xa8
B · 0–255
33
0x21

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta30.0%
Yellow86.3%
Key (black)5.9%

Total ink coverage is 122%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#f0a821 text on a black background

contrast 10.33:1

Card sample

#f0a821 text on a white background

contrast 2.03:1

Card sample

#f0a821 on grey

1.86:1

#f0a821 on its own surface

1.92:1

#f0a821 on its dark surface

8.06:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #f0a821;
Background color
Panel with #f0a821 background
background-color: #f0a821;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #f0a821;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(240, 168, 33, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(240, 168, 33, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #f0a821;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #f0a821, #AEF021);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #f0a821, #7AF021);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #f0a821;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #f0a821;
caret-color: #f0a821;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #f0a821;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FDF6E7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #f0a821;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#f0a821 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #f0a821 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(240, 168, 33, 0.5)
rgb(240 168 33 / 50%)
#f0a82180
hsl(39 87% 54% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #f0a821 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#f0a8211a#FEF6E9
20%#f0a82133#FCEED3
40%#f0a82166#F9DCA6
60%#f0a82199#F6CB7A
80%#f0a821cc#F3B94D

Gradients from #f0a821

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, #F4BE5A, #f0a821 45%, #775108);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #f0a821, #8EE30F);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #f0a821, #2169F0);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F6CA77 0%, #f0a821 45%, #775108 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%, #F35C51 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C8F23E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #775108 0%, transparent 65%), #f0a821;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #f0a821

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.

#f0a821 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 10.33:1.

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.

#f0a821, answered

What color is #f0a821?

#f0a821 is a balanced electric orange, closest to Orange (ΔE2000 3.8). It sits at 39° on the hue wheel with 87% saturation and 54% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #f0a821?

rgb(240, 168, 33) — 240 red, 168 green and 33 blue out of 255, or 94.1% / 65.9% / 12.9% by channel.

What is #f0a821 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(39, 87%, 54%) and hsv(39, 86%, 94%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #f0a821 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4664 and perceived brightness is 72%, so black text on it reaches 10.33:1.

Should I use black or white text on #f0a821?

Black. It scores 10.33:1 against #f0a821, versus 2.03:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #f0a821 accessible on a white background?

#f0a821 on white scores 2.03:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #A06C0B to reach 4.5:1, or #754F08 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #f0a821?

#2169F0 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #21D1F0 and #4021F0, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #f0a821?

For interface work: #FAF8F4 as the surface, #EDDDC0 for borders, #9B7F4B for secondary text, #0978C3 as an accent and #775108 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #F04021 and #D1F021 stays calm, while #2169F0 is the loudest partner.

What is #f0a821 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 30%, 86%, 6%). 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 #f0a821 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 #F08F21; nudged cooler, #EEF21F.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #f0a821?

The amber family — its 500 step is #f59e0b, ΔE2000 4 away. That is a visible difference, so define #f0a821 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #f0a821 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#f0a821] or text-[#f0a821], 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 #f0a821 with 50% opacity?

rgba(240, 168, 33, 0.5), or #f0a82180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #F8D490; over black, #785411.

Is #f0a821 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9933, ΔE2000 9.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #f0a821 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 #f0a821?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F4BE5A, #f0a821 45%, #775108). For more colour, a short hue run to #8EE30F keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #f0a821 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #f0a821 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.