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red · warm

#ff9bab

a light, electric red · warm · closest name: Light Pink

Token name suggestion: Meadow Cherry

RGB
255, 155, 171
HSL
350°, 100%, 80%
CMYK
0, 39, 33, 0
Luminance
0.4764

#ff9bab is a light electric red, 350° on the wheel and 22/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.53:1). As text it scores 1.99:1 on white — use #ED0026 instead. Nearest name is Light Pink, nearest Tailwind family is pink.

hsl(350 100% 80%)rgb(255 155 171)Base step 300AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ff9bab is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ff9bab
Hue
350°
red
Saturation
100%
electric
Lightness
80%
light
Brightness
100%
HSV value
Perceived
75%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4764
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
22/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
10.53:1
Closest name
Light Pink
ΔE2000 6.5
Chroma
39.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.796
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
pink
500 · ΔE 18.6
Web-safe
#FF9999
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue350° of 360°
Saturation100%
Lightness80%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ff9bab.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool22% 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
Red45%
Green49%
Blue6%

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

Every format

HEX#ff9bab
HEX (8-digit)#ff9babff
RGBrgb(255, 155, 171)
RGBArgba(255, 155, 171, 1)
HSLhsl(350, 100%, 80%)
HSV / HSBhsv(350, 39%, 100%)
HWBhwb(350 61% 0%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 39%, 33%, 0%)
LABlab(74.6 39.1 7.7)
LCHlch(74.6 39.9 11.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.796 0.120 9.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(60.31, 47.65, 44.54)
Decimal16751531
Display P3color(display-p3 1.000 0.608 0.671)
Web-safe#FF9999

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ff9bab;
background-color: #ff9bab;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ff9bab;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ff9bab] bg-[#ff9bab]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ff9bab;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 1.000, green: 0.608, blue: 0.671)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 1.000, green: 0.608, blue: 0.671, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#FF9BAB</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFFF9BAB)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFFF9BAB)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(171, 155, 255)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(255, 155, 171)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(255, 155, 171)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 155, 171)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(1.0000f, 0.6078f, 0.6706f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{255,155,171}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ff9bab 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ff9bab 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#800014, #EED3D7);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ff9bab 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: #FEF1F3;
  --brand-100: #FCE3E7;
  --brand-200: #FCC0CA;
  --brand-300: #ff9bab;
  --brand-400: #FF5772;
  --brand-500: #FF1F43;
  --brand-600: #F50027;
  --brand-700: #CC0021;
  --brand-800: #A3001A;
  --brand-900: #760517;
  --brand-950: #49030E;
  --brand: #ff9bab;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF4F5;
  --brand-border: #EDC0C7;
  --brand-hover: #FF778D;
  --brand-pressed: #FF546F;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241416;
    --brand-ink: #EED3D7;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FEF1F3',
        100: '#FCE3E7',
        200: '#FCC0CA',
        300: '#ff9bab',
        400: '#FF5772',
        500: '#FF1F43',
        600: '#F50027',
        700: '#CC0021',
        800: '#A3001A',
        900: '#760517',
        950: '#49030E',
        DEFAULT: '#ff9bab',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FEF1F3,
  '100': #FCE3E7,
  '200': #FCC0CA,
  '300': #ff9bab,
  '400': #FF5772,
  '500': #FF1F43,
  '600': #F50027,
  '700': #CC0021,
  '800': #A3001A,
  '900': #760517,
  '950': #49030E,
);
$brand-base: #ff9bab;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FEF1F3", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FCE3E7", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#FCC0CA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#ff9bab", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#FF5772", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#FF1F43", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#F50027", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#CC0021", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#A3001A", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#760517", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#49030E", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ff9bab · 10.53:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.99:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.53:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ff9bab as text scores 1.99:1 on white and 10.53:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #800014 at 5.46:1.

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
#ED0026 · 4.54:1
AA on white−34% L
#ED0026
The quick fox
#B5001D · 7.04:1
AAA on white−45% L
#B5001D
The quick fox
#ff9bab · 10.53:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ff9bab
The quick fox
#ff9bab · 10.53:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ff9bab

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #FF5973 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
#ff9bab on white: 1.99:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ff9bab on black: 10.53:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ff9bab as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ff9bab.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.99:1AaAa
Slate 501.91:1AaAa
Slate 1001.82:1AaAa
Slate 2001.62:1AaAa
Slate 3001.34:1AaAa
Slate 4001.29:1AaAa
Slate 5002.39:1AaAa
Slate 6003.80:1AaAa
Slate 7005.19:1AaAa
Slate 8007.33:1AaAa
Slate 9008.95:1AaAa
Black10.53:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #ACACAB
deuteranopia · #C5BFA9
tritanopia · #FF92A1

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. #ff9bab is pinned to step 300; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FEF1F3
#FCE3E7
#FCC0CA
#ff9bab
#FF5772
#FF1F43
#F50027
#CC0021
#A3001A
#760517
#49030E
Base = 300Lightest = 50 · #FEF1F3Darkest = 950 · #49030EText step on white = 700
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 9.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.048 9.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.072 9.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.094 9.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.111 9.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.120 9.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.120 9.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.113 9.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.101 9.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.084 9.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.066 9.8);
}

Colors that work with #ff9bab

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#FAF4F5
Tinted page background
Border#EDC0C7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B4B57
Captions on the surface
Accent#00CC78
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#800014
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FFE5EA
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241416
Dark-mode background
Hover#FF778D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#FF546F
Two steps down
Disabled#F7F3F3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#FFAFBC
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 #ff9bab

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
  • Status meaning — pair it with an icon or label, never colour alone
  • 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 #800014
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #FF5973

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

urgentappetisingboldphysical

Red arrives before the rest of the page does. It raises attention and appetite, which is why it runs food, sport and clearance pricing.

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

It is also the universal error colour. Use it as a brand accent and users may read a warning that is not there.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight20/100
  • 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#9BFFEF
Analogous left#FF9BDD
Analogous right#FFBD9B
Split-complement 1#9BFFBD
Split-complement 2#9BDDFF
Triadic 1#ABFF9B
Triadic 2#9BABFF
Tetradic#DDFF9B
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°350°

#ff9bab sits at 350°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red100.0%
Green60.8%
Blue67.1%
R · 0–255
255
0xff
G · 0–255
155
0x9b
B · 0–255
171
0xab

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta39.2%
Yellow32.9%
Key (black)0.0%

Total ink coverage is 72%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ff9bab text on a black background

contrast 10.53:1

Card sample

#ff9bab text on a white background

contrast 1.99:1

Card sample

#ff9bab on grey

1.82:1

#ff9bab on its own surface

1.84:1

#ff9bab on its dark surface

8.87:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ff9bab;
Background color
Panel with #ff9bab background
background-color: #ff9bab;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ff9bab;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(255, 155, 171, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(255, 155, 171, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ff9bab;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ff9bab, #FFCE9B);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ff9bab, #FFE79B);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ff9bab;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ff9bab;
caret-color: #ff9bab;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ff9bab;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FFE5EA;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ff9bab;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ff9bab 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ff9bab 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(255, 155, 171, 0.5)
rgb(255 155 171 / 50%)
#ff9bab80
hsl(350 100% 80% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ff9bab 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ff9bab1a#FFF5F7
20%#ff9bab33#FFEBEE
40%#ff9bab66#FFD7DD
60%#ff9bab99#FFC3CD
80%#ff9babcc#FFAFBC

Gradients from #ff9bab

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, #FFD8DE, #ff9bab 45%, #800014);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ff9bab, #FFC97C);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ff9bab, #9BFFEF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #FFF0F2 0%, #ff9bab 45%, #800014 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF4F5, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #FFCEF2 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FFD7BA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #800014 0%, transparent 65%), #ff9bab;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ff9bab

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.

#ff9bab in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
Food and drinkEntertainmentRetailSport
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 10.53:1.

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.

#ff9bab, answered

What color is #ff9bab?

#ff9bab is a light electric red, closest to Light Pink (ΔE2000 6.5). It sits at 350° on the hue wheel with 100% saturation and 80% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ff9bab?

rgb(255, 155, 171) — 255 red, 155 green and 171 blue out of 255, or 100% / 60.8% / 67.1% by channel.

What is #ff9bab in HSL and HSV?

hsl(350, 100%, 80%) and hsv(350, 39%, 100%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ff9bab a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4764 and perceived brightness is 75%, so black text on it reaches 10.53:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ff9bab?

Black. It scores 10.53:1 against #ff9bab, versus 1.99:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ff9bab accessible on a white background?

#ff9bab on white scores 1.99:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #ED0026 to reach 4.5:1, or #B5001D for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ff9bab?

#9BFFEF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #9BFFBD and #9BDDFF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ff9bab?

For interface work: #FAF4F5 as the surface, #EDC0C7 for borders, #9B4B57 for secondary text, #00CC78 as an accent and #800014 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #FF9BDD and #FFBD9B stays calm, while #9BFFEF is the loudest partner.

What is #ff9bab in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 39%, 33%, 0%). 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 #ff9bab warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 22 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #FFB09B; nudged cooler, #FF9BD0.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ff9bab?

The pink family — its 500 step is #ec4899, ΔE2000 18.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ff9bab as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ff9bab in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ff9bab] or text-[#ff9bab], 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 #ff9bab with 50% opacity?

rgba(255, 155, 171, 0.5), or #ff9bab80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #FFCDD5; over black, #804E56.

Is #ff9bab a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FF9999, ΔE2000 5.4 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ff9bab mean?

As a red, it reads urgent, appetising, bold. Red arrives before the rest of the page does. It raises attention and appetite, which is why it runs food, sport and clearance pricing. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #ff9bab?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #FFD8DE, #ff9bab 45%, #800014). For more colour, a short hue run to #FFC97C keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ff9bab in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ff9bab at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.