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orange · warm

#fcaf73

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

Token name suggestion: Meadow Marmalade

RGB
252, 175, 115
HSL
26°, 96%, 72%
CMYK
0, 31, 54, 1
Luminance
0.5259

#fcaf73 is a light electric orange, 26° on the wheel and 2/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (11.52:1). As text it scores 1.82:1 on white — use #BE5504 instead. Nearest name is Sandy Brown, nearest Tailwind family is amber.

hsl(26 96% 72%)rgb(252 175 115)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #fcaf73 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#fcaf73
Hue
26°
orange
Saturation
96%
electric
Lightness
72%
light
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
77%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.5259
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
2/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
11.52:1
Closest name
Sandy Brown
ΔE2000 3.2
Chroma
47.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.815
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
amber
500 · ΔE 11.5
Web-safe
#FF9966
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue26° of 360°
Saturation96%
Lightness72%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #fcaf73.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool2% 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
Red39%
Green58%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#fcaf73
HEX (8-digit)#fcaf73ff
RGBrgb(252, 175, 115)
RGBArgba(252, 175, 115, 1)
HSLhsl(26, 96%, 72%)
HSV / HSBhsv(26, 54%, 99%)
HWBhwb(26 45% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 31%, 54%, 1%)
LABlab(77.6 21.9 41.8)
LCHlch(77.6 47.2 62.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.815 0.118 58.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(58.57, 52.60, 23.28)
Decimal16559987
Display P3color(display-p3 0.988 0.686 0.451)
Web-safe#FF9966

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #fcaf73;
background-color: #fcaf73;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #fcaf73;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#fcaf73] bg-[#fcaf73]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #fcaf73;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.988, green: 0.686, blue: 0.451)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.988, green: 0.686, blue: 0.451, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#FCAF73</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFFCAF73)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFFCAF73)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(115, 175, 252)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(252, 175, 115)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(252, 175, 115)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 252, 175, 115)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9882f, 0.6863f, 0.4510f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{252,175,115}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #fcaf73 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #fcaf73 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7D3803, #EEDFD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #fcaf73 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: #FDF7F1;
  --brand-100: #FCEEE4;
  --brand-200: #FADAC1;
  --brand-300: #FDC091;
  --brand-400: #fcaf73;
  --brand-500: #FA8223;
  --brand-600: #F06C05;
  --brand-700: #C85A04;
  --brand-800: #A04803;
  --brand-900: #733707;
  --brand-950: #482205;
  --brand: #fcaf73;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF7F4;
  --brand-border: #EDD3C0;
  --brand-hover: #FB9B50;
  --brand-pressed: #FB872D;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241B14;
    --brand-ink: #EEDFD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF7F1',
        100: '#FCEEE4',
        200: '#FADAC1',
        300: '#FDC091',
        400: '#fcaf73',
        500: '#FA8223',
        600: '#F06C05',
        700: '#C85A04',
        800: '#A04803',
        900: '#733707',
        950: '#482205',
        DEFAULT: '#fcaf73',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF7F1,
  '100': #FCEEE4,
  '200': #FADAC1,
  '300': #FDC091,
  '400': #fcaf73,
  '500': #FA8223,
  '600': #F06C05,
  '700': #C85A04,
  '800': #A04803,
  '900': #733707,
  '950': #482205,
);
$brand-base: #fcaf73;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF7F1", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FCEEE4", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#FADAC1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FDC091", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#fcaf73", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#FA8223", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#F06C05", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#C85A04", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#A04803", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#733707", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#482205", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #fcaf73 · 11.52:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.82:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 11.52:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #fcaf73 as text scores 1.82:1 on white and 11.52:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #7D3803 at 4.72:1.

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
#BE5504 · 4.68:1
AA on white−34% L
#BE5504
The quick fox
#914103 · 7.09:1
AAA on white−43% L
#914103
The quick fox
#fcaf73 · 11.52:1
AA on blackalready passes
#fcaf73
The quick fox
#fcaf73 · 11.52:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#fcaf73

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #F06C05 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
#fcaf73 on white: 1.82:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#fcaf73 on black: 11.52:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #fcaf73 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #fcaf73.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.82:1AaAa
Slate 501.74:1AaAa
Slate 1001.66:1AaAa
Slate 2001.48:1AaAa
Slate 3001.23:1AaAa
Slate 4001.41:1AaAa
Slate 5002.61:1AaAa
Slate 6004.16:1AaAa
Slate 7005.68:1AaAa
Slate 8008.02:1AaAa
Slate 9009.79:1AaAa
Black11.52:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C6B66E
deuteranopia · #D8C773
tritanopia · #FF9FA0

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. #fcaf73 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.

#FDF7F1
#FCEEE4
#FADAC1
#FDC091
#fcaf73
#FA8223
#F06C05
#C85A04
#A04803
#733707
#482205
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #FDF7F1Darkest = 950 · #482205Text 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 0.030 58.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.047 58.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.071 58.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.092 58.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.109 58.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.118 58.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.118 58.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.111 58.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.099 58.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.083 58.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.065 58.0);
}

Colors that work with #fcaf73

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#EDD3C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B6E4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#00A6CC
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7D3803
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEF1E6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241B14
Dark-mode background
Hover#FB9B50
One step down in lightness
Pressed#FB872D
Two steps down
Disabled#F3EFEC
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#FFBA85
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 #fcaf73

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 #7D3803
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #F06C05

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
  • Weight28/100
  • 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#73C0FC
Analogous left#FC737C
Analogous right#FCF473
Split-complement 1#73FCF4
Split-complement 2#737CFC
Triadic 1#73FCAF
Triadic 2#AF73FC
Tetradic#7CFC73
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°26°

#fcaf73 sits at 26°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red98.8%
Green68.6%
Blue45.1%
R · 0–255
252
0xfc
G · 0–255
175
0xaf
B · 0–255
115
0x73

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta30.6%
Yellow54.4%
Key (black)1.2%

Total ink coverage is 86%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#fcaf73 text on a black background

contrast 11.52:1

Card sample

#fcaf73 text on a white background

contrast 1.82:1

Card sample

#fcaf73 on grey

1.66:1

#fcaf73 on its own surface

1.71:1

#fcaf73 on its dark surface

9.28:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #fcaf73;
Background color
Panel with #fcaf73 background
background-color: #fcaf73;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #fcaf73;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(252, 175, 115, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(252, 175, 115, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #fcaf73;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #fcaf73, #EEFC73);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #fcaf73, #CBFC73);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #fcaf73;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #fcaf73;
caret-color: #fcaf73;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #fcaf73;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEF1E6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #fcaf73;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#fcaf73 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #fcaf73 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(252, 175, 115, 0.5)
rgb(252 175 115 / 50%)
#fcaf7380
hsl(26 96% 72% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #fcaf73 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#fcaf731a#FFF7F1
20%#fcaf7333#FEEFE3
40%#fcaf7366#FEDFC7
60%#fcaf7399#FDCFAB
80%#fcaf73cc#FDBF8F

Gradients from #fcaf73

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, #FDD1AF, #fcaf73 45%, #7D3803);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #fcaf73, #DCFB55);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #fcaf73, #73C0FC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #FEE2CD 0%, #fcaf73 45%, #7D3803 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%, #FDA5B2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FAFD91 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7D3803 0%, transparent 65%), #fcaf73;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #fcaf73

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.

#fcaf73 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 11.52:1.

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.

#fcaf73, answered

What color is #fcaf73?

#fcaf73 is a light electric orange, closest to Sandy Brown (ΔE2000 3.2). It sits at 26° on the hue wheel with 96% saturation and 72% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #fcaf73?

rgb(252, 175, 115) — 252 red, 175 green and 115 blue out of 255, or 98.8% / 68.6% / 45.1% by channel.

What is #fcaf73 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(26, 96%, 72%) and hsv(26, 54%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #fcaf73 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.5259 and perceived brightness is 77%, so black text on it reaches 11.52:1.

Should I use black or white text on #fcaf73?

Black. It scores 11.52:1 against #fcaf73, versus 1.82:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #fcaf73 accessible on a white background?

#fcaf73 on white scores 1.82:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #BE5504 to reach 4.5:1, or #914103 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #fcaf73?

#73C0FC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #73FCF4 and #737CFC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #fcaf73?

For interface work: #FAF7F4 as the surface, #EDD3C0 for borders, #9B6E4B for secondary text, #00A6CC as an accent and #7D3803 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #FC737C and #FCF473 stays calm, while #73C0FC is the loudest partner.

What is #fcaf73 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 31%, 54%, 1%). 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 #fcaf73 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 2 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #FDBC8C; nudged cooler, #FD7C72.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #fcaf73?

The amber family — its 500 step is #f59e0b, ΔE2000 11.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #fcaf73 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #fcaf73 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#fcaf73] or text-[#fcaf73], 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 #fcaf73 with 50% opacity?

rgba(252, 175, 115, 0.5), or #fcaf7380 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #FED7B9; over black, #7E583A.

Is #fcaf73 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9966, ΔE2000 7.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #fcaf73 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 #fcaf73?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #FDD1AF, #fcaf73 45%, #7D3803). For more colour, a short hue run to #DCFB55 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #fcaf73 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #fcaf73 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.