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orange · warm

#fba161

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

Token name suggestion: Linen Amber

RGB
251, 161, 97
HSL
25°, 95%, 68%
CMYK
0, 36, 61, 2
Luminance
0.4686

#fba161 is a light electric orange, 25° on the wheel and 3/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.37:1). As text it scores 2.02:1 on white — use #C35405 instead. Nearest name is Sandy Brown, nearest Tailwind family is orange.

hsl(25 95% 68%)rgb(251 161 97)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #fba161 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#fba161
Hue
25°
orange
Saturation
95%
electric
Lightness
68%
light
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
73%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4686
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
3/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
10.37:1
Closest name
Sandy Brown
ΔE2000 2.7
Chroma
54.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.787
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
orange
500 · ΔE 11.1
Web-safe
#FF9966
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue25° of 360°
Saturation95%
Lightness68%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #fba161.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool3% 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
Red44%
Green54%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#fba161
HEX (8-digit)#fba161ff
RGBrgb(251, 161, 97)
RGBArgba(251, 161, 97, 1)
HSLhsl(25, 95%, 68%)
HSV / HSBhsv(25, 61%, 98%)
HWBhwb(25 38% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 36%, 61%, 2%)
LABlab(74.1 27.5 46.7)
LCHlch(74.1 54.2 59.5)
OKLCHoklch(0.787 0.134 54.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(54.69, 46.87, 17.47)
Decimal16490849
Display P3color(display-p3 0.984 0.631 0.380)
Web-safe#FF9966

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #fba161;
background-color: #fba161;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #fba161;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#fba161] bg-[#fba161]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #fba161;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.984, green: 0.631, blue: 0.380)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.984, green: 0.631, blue: 0.380, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#FBA161</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFFBA161)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFFBA161)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(97, 161, 251)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(251, 161, 97)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(251, 161, 97)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 251, 161, 97)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9843f, 0.6314f, 0.3804f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{251,161,97}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #fba161 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #fba161 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7C3503, #EEDED3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #fba161 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: #FDF6F1;
  --brand-100: #FBEEE4;
  --brand-200: #FAD9C2;
  --brand-300: #FCBE92;
  --brand-400: #fba161;
  --brand-500: #FA7D24;
  --brand-600: #EF6706;
  --brand-700: #C75605;
  --brand-800: #9F4404;
  --brand-900: #733408;
  --brand-950: #482105;
  --brand: #fba161;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF7F4;
  --brand-border: #EDD2C0;
  --brand-hover: #FA8C3E;
  --brand-pressed: #F9771B;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241B14;
    --brand-ink: #EEDED3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF6F1',
        100: '#FBEEE4',
        200: '#FAD9C2',
        300: '#FCBE92',
        400: '#fba161',
        500: '#FA7D24',
        600: '#EF6706',
        700: '#C75605',
        800: '#9F4404',
        900: '#733408',
        950: '#482105',
        DEFAULT: '#fba161',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF6F1,
  '100': #FBEEE4,
  '200': #FAD9C2,
  '300': #FCBE92,
  '400': #fba161,
  '500': #FA7D24,
  '600': #EF6706,
  '700': #C75605,
  '800': #9F4404,
  '900': #733408,
  '950': #482105,
);
$brand-base: #fba161;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF6F1", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBEEE4", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#FAD9C2", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FCBE92", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#fba161", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#FA7D24", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#EF6706", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#C75605", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9F4404", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#733408", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#482105", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #fba161 · 10.37:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.02:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.37:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #fba161 as text scores 2.02:1 on white and 10.37:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #7C3503 at 4.38:1.

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
#C35405 · 4.57:1
AA on white−29% L
#C35405
The quick fox
#913E04 · 7.25:1
AAA on white−39% L
#913E04
The quick fox
#fba161 · 10.37:1
AA on blackalready passes
#fba161
The quick fox
#fba161 · 10.37:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#fba161

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #F56906 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
#fba161 on white: 2.02:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#fba161 on black: 10.37:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #fba161 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #fba161.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.02:1AaAa
Slate 501.94:1AaAa
Slate 1001.85:1AaAa
Slate 2001.64:1AaAa
Slate 3001.36:1AaAa
Slate 4001.27:1AaAa
Slate 5002.35:1AaAa
Slate 6003.74:1AaAa
Slate 7005.11:1AaAa
Slate 8007.23:1AaAa
Slate 9008.82:1AaAa
Black10.37:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BBAA5B
deuteranopia · #D0BE61
tritanopia · #FF8F92

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. #fba161 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.

#FDF6F1
#FBEEE4
#FAD9C2
#FCBE92
#fba161
#FA7D24
#EF6706
#C75605
#9F4404
#733408
#482105
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #FDF6F1Darkest = 950 · #482105Text 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 0.033 54.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.053 54.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.080 54.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.104 54.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.123 54.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.134 54.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.134 54.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.126 54.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.112 54.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.094 54.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.074 54.8);
}

Colors that work with #fba161

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#EDD2C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B6C4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#01AACB
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7C3503
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEF0E6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241B14
Dark-mode background
Hover#FA8C3E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#F9771B
Two steps down
Disabled#ECE5E1
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#FFAC71
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 #fba161

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 #7C3503
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #F56906

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#61BBFB
Analogous left#FB616E
Analogous right#FBEE61
Split-complement 1#61FBEE
Split-complement 2#616EFB
Triadic 1#61FBA1
Triadic 2#A161FB
Tetradic#6EFB61
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°25°

#fba161 sits at 25°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red98.4%
Green63.1%
Blue38.0%
R · 0–255
251
0xfb
G · 0–255
161
0xa1
B · 0–255
97
0x61

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta35.9%
Yellow61.4%
Key (black)1.6%

Total ink coverage is 99%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#fba161 text on a black background

contrast 10.37:1

Card sample

#fba161 text on a white background

contrast 2.02:1

Card sample

#fba161 on grey

1.85:1

#fba161 on its own surface

1.90:1

#fba161 on its dark surface

8.35:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #fba161;
Background color
Panel with #fba161 background
background-color: #fba161;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #fba161;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(251, 161, 97, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(251, 161, 97, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #fba161;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #fba161, #EEFB61);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #fba161, #C8FB61);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #fba161;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #fba161;
caret-color: #fba161;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #fba161;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEF0E6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #fba161;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#fba161 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #fba161 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(251, 161, 97, 0.5)
rgb(251 161 97 / 50%)
#fba16180
hsl(25 95% 68% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #fba161 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#fba1611a#FFF6EF
20%#fba16133#FEECDF
40%#fba16166#FDD9C0
60%#fba16199#FDC7A0
80%#fba161cc#FCB481

Gradients from #fba161

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, #FDC49C, #fba161 45%, #7C3503);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #fba161, #DCFA43);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #fba161, #61BBFB);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #FDD6BA 0%, #fba161 45%, #7C3503 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%, #FC93A4 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FCFC7F 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7C3503 0%, transparent 65%), #fba161;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #fba161

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.

#fba161 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 10.37:1.

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.

#fba161, answered

What color is #fba161?

#fba161 is a light electric orange, closest to Sandy Brown (ΔE2000 2.7). It sits at 25° on the hue wheel with 95% saturation and 68% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #fba161?

rgb(251, 161, 97) — 251 red, 161 green and 97 blue out of 255, or 98.4% / 63.1% / 38% by channel.

What is #fba161 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(25, 95%, 68%) and hsv(25, 61%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #fba161 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4686 and perceived brightness is 73%, so black text on it reaches 10.37:1.

Should I use black or white text on #fba161?

Black. It scores 10.37:1 against #fba161, versus 2.02:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #fba161 accessible on a white background?

#fba161 on white scores 2.02:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #C35405 to reach 4.5:1, or #913E04 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #fba161?

#61BBFB sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #61FBEE and #616EFB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #fba161?

For interface work: #FAF7F4 as the surface, #EDD2C0 for borders, #9B6C4B for secondary text, #01AACB as an accent and #7C3503 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #FB616E and #FBEE61 stays calm, while #61BBFB is the loudest partner.

What is #fba161 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 36%, 61%, 2%). 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 #fba161 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 3 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #FCB07A; nudged cooler, #FD675F.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #fba161?

The orange family — its 500 step is #f97316, ΔE2000 11.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #fba161 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #fba161 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#fba161] or text-[#fba161], 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 #fba161 with 50% opacity?

rgba(251, 161, 97, 0.5), or #fba16180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #FDD0B0; over black, #7E5131.

Is #fba161 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9966, ΔE2000 4.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #fba161 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 #fba161?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #FDC49C, #fba161 45%, #7C3503). For more colour, a short hue run to #DCFA43 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #fba161 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #fba161 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.