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orange · warm

#fd8901

a balanced, electric orange · warm · “Dark Orange”

Token name suggestion: Studio Amber

RGB
253, 137, 1
HSL
32°, 99%, 50%
CMYK
0, 46, 100, 1
Luminance
0.3878

#fd8901 is a balanced electric orange, 32° on the wheel and 2/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.76:1). As text it scores 2.40:1 on white — use #B16001 instead. Nearest name is Dark Orange, nearest Tailwind family is orange.

hsl(32 99% 50%)rgb(253 137 1)Base step 600AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #fd8901 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#fd8901
Hue
32°
orange
Saturation
99%
electric
Lightness
50%
balanced
Brightness
99%
HSV value
Perceived
68%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3878
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
2/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
8.76:1
Closest name
Dark Orange
ΔE2000 0.9
Chroma
83.6
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.743
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
orange
500 · ΔE 7.7
Web-safe
#FF9900
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue32° of 360°
Saturation99%
Lightness50%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #fd8901.

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
Red54%
Green46%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#fd8901
HEX (8-digit)#fd8901ff
RGBrgb(253, 137, 1)
RGBArgba(253, 137, 1, 1)
HSLhsl(32, 99%, 50%)
HSV / HSBhsv(32, 100%, 99%)
HWBhwb(32 0% 1%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 46%, 100%, 1%)
LABlab(68.6 37.5 74.7)
LCHlch(68.6 83.6 63.3)
OKLCHoklch(0.743 0.179 57.4)
XYZ (D65)xyz(49.46, 38.78, 4.91)
Decimal16615681
Display P3color(display-p3 0.992 0.537 0.004)
Web-safe#FF9900

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #fd8901;
background-color: #fd8901;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #fd8901;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#fd8901] bg-[#fd8901]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #fd8901;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.992, green: 0.537, blue: 0.004)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.992, green: 0.537, blue: 0.004, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#FD8901</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFFD8901)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFFD8901)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(1, 137, 253)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(253, 137, 1)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(253, 137, 1)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 253, 137, 1)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9922f, 0.5373f, 0.0039f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{253,137,1}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #fd8901 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #fd8901 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7F4501, #EEE2D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #fd8901 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: #FEF8F1;
  --brand-100: #FCF1E3;
  --brand-200: #FBE0C0;
  --brand-300: #FFCB8F;
  --brand-400: #FEB257;
  --brand-500: #FE981F;
  --brand-600: #fd8901;
  --brand-700: #CB6E01;
  --brand-800: #A35801;
  --brand-900: #754205;
  --brand-950: #492903;
  --brand: #fd8901;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF8F4;
  --brand-border: #EDD8C0;
  --brand-hover: #D97601;
  --brand-pressed: #B66301;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241D14;
    --brand-ink: #EEE2D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FEF8F1',
        100: '#FCF1E3',
        200: '#FBE0C0',
        300: '#FFCB8F',
        400: '#FEB257',
        500: '#FE981F',
        600: '#fd8901',
        700: '#CB6E01',
        800: '#A35801',
        900: '#754205',
        950: '#492903',
        DEFAULT: '#fd8901',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FEF8F1,
  '100': #FCF1E3,
  '200': #FBE0C0,
  '300': #FFCB8F,
  '400': #FEB257,
  '500': #FE981F,
  '600': #fd8901,
  '700': #CB6E01,
  '800': #A35801,
  '900': #754205,
  '950': #492903,
);
$brand-base: #fd8901;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FEF8F1", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FCF1E3", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#FBE0C0", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FFCB8F", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#FEB257", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#FE981F", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#fd8901", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#CB6E01", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#A35801", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#754205", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#492903", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #fd8901 · 8.76:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.40:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.76:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #fd8901 as text scores 2.40:1 on white and 8.76:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #7F4501 at 3.18:1.

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
#B16001 · 4.62:1
AA on white−15% L
#B16001
The quick fox
#834701 · 7.33:1
AAA on white−24% L
#834701
The quick fox
#fd8901 · 8.76:1
AA on blackalready passes
#fd8901
The quick fox
#fd8901 · 8.76:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#fd8901

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #DE7901 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
#fd8901 on white: 2.40:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#fd8901 on black: 8.76:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #fd8901 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #fd8901.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.40:1AaAa
Slate 502.29:1AaAa
Slate 1002.19:1AaAa
Slate 2001.95:1AaAa
Slate 3001.62:1AaAa
Slate 4001.07:1AaAa
Slate 5001.98:1AaAa
Slate 6003.16:1AaAa
Slate 7004.32:1AaAa
Slate 8006.10:1AaAa
Slate 9007.44:1AaAa
Black8.76:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #AC9700
deuteranopia · #C8B200
tritanopia · #FF6E75

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. #fd8901 is pinned to step 600; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FEF8F1
#FCF1E3
#FBE0C0
#FFCB8F
#FEB257
#FE981F
#fd8901
#CB6E01
#A35801
#754205
#492903
Base = 600Lightest = 50 · #FEF8F1Darkest = 950 · #492903Text 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 0.045 57.4);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.072 57.4);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.107 57.4);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.140 57.4);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.165 57.4);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.179 57.4);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.179 57.4);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.168 57.4);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.150 57.4);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.125 57.4);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.098 57.4);
}

Colors that work with #fd8901

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#EDD8C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B764B
Captions on the surface
Accent#0091CC
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7F4501
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FFF3E6
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241D14
Dark-mode background
Hover#D97601
One step down in lightness
Pressed#B66301
Two steps down
Disabled#C7B8A7
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#FF9313
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 #fd8901

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 #7F4501
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #DE7901

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
  • Weight50/100
  • 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#0175FD
Analogous left#FD0B01
Analogous right#F3FD01
Split-complement 1#01F3FD
Split-complement 2#0B01FD
Triadic 1#01FD89
Triadic 2#8901FD
Tetradic#01FD0B
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°32°

#fd8901 sits at 32°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red99.2%
Green53.7%
Blue0.4%
R · 0–255
253
0xfd
G · 0–255
137
0x89
B · 0–255
1
0x01

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta45.8%
Yellow99.6%
Key (black)0.8%

Total ink coverage is 146%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#fd8901 text on a black background

contrast 8.76:1

Card sample

#fd8901 text on a white background

contrast 2.40:1

Card sample

#fd8901 on grey

2.19:1

#fd8901 on its own surface

2.26:1

#fd8901 on its dark surface

6.94:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #fd8901;
Background color
Panel with #fd8901 background
background-color: #fd8901;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #fd8901;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(253, 137, 1, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(253, 137, 1, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #fd8901;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #fd8901, #C9FD01);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #fd8901, #8AFD01);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #fd8901;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #fd8901;
caret-color: #fd8901;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #fd8901;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FFF3E6;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #fd8901;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#fd8901 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #fd8901 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(253, 137, 1, 0.5)
rgb(253 137 1 / 50%)
#fd890180
hsl(32 99% 50% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #fd8901 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#fd89011a#FFF3E6
20%#fd890133#FFE7CC
40%#fd890166#FED099
60%#fd890199#FEB867
80%#fd8901cc#FDA134

Gradients from #fd8901

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, #FEA53D, #fd8901 45%, #7F4501);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #fd8901, #9EDE01);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #fd8901, #0175FD);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #FEB35B 0%, #fd8901 45%, #7F4501 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%, #FE333C 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #E3FE1E 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7F4501 0%, transparent 65%), #fd8901;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #fd8901

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.

#fd8901 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 8.76:1.

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.

#fd8901, answered

What color is #fd8901?

#fd8901 is a balanced electric orange — the CSS keyword Dark Orange. It sits at 32° on the hue wheel with 99% saturation and 50% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #fd8901?

rgb(253, 137, 1) — 253 red, 137 green and 1 blue out of 255, or 99.2% / 53.7% / 0.4% by channel.

What is #fd8901 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(32, 99%, 50%) and hsv(32, 100%, 99%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #fd8901 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3878 and perceived brightness is 68%, so black text on it reaches 8.76:1.

Should I use black or white text on #fd8901?

Black. It scores 8.76:1 against #fd8901, versus 2.40:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #fd8901 accessible on a white background?

#fd8901 on white scores 2.40:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #B16001 to reach 4.5:1, or #834701 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #fd8901?

#0175FD sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #01F3FD and #0B01FD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #fd8901?

For interface work: #FAF8F4 as the surface, #EDD8C0 for borders, #9B764B for secondary text, #0091CC as an accent and #7F4501 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #FD0B01 and #F3FD01 stays calm, while #0175FD is the loudest partner.

What is #fd8901 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 46%, 100%, 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 #fd8901 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 #FE8819; nudged cooler, #E48400.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #fd8901?

The orange family — its 500 step is #f97316, ΔE2000 7.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #fd8901 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #fd8901 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#fd8901] or text-[#fd8901], 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 #fd8901 with 50% opacity?

rgba(253, 137, 1, 0.5), or #fd890180 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #FEC480; over black, #7F4501.

Is #fd8901 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9900, ΔE2000 5.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #fd8901 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 #fd8901?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #FEA53D, #fd8901 45%, #7F4501). For more colour, a short hue run to #9EDE01 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #fd8901 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #fd8901 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.