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orange · warm

#cd480a

a dark, electric orange · warm · closest name: Chocolate

Token name suggestion: Forest Apricot

RGB
205, 72, 10
HSL
19°, 91%, 42%
CMYK
0, 65, 95, 20
Luminance
0.1764

#cd480a is a dark electric orange, 19° on the wheel and 6/100 on the cool side. Put white text on it (4.64:1). As text it scores 4.64:1 on white — safe at any size. Nearest name is Chocolate, nearest Tailwind family is red.

hsl(19 91% 42%)rgb(205 72 10)Base step 700AA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #cd480a is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#cd480a
Hue
19°
orange
Saturation
91%
electric
Lightness
42%
dark
Brightness
80%
HSV value
Perceived
49%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.1764
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
6/100 cool
Color family
Orange
Tone
Electric
Best ink
White
4.64:1
Closest name
Chocolate
ΔE2000 9.4
Chroma
76.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.580
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
red
500 · ΔE 14
Web-safe
#CC3300
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue19° of 360°
Saturation91%
Lightness42%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #cd480a.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool6% 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
Red74%
Green26%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#cd480a
HEX (8-digit)#cd480aff
RGBrgb(205, 72, 10)
RGBArgba(205, 72, 10, 1)
HSLhsl(19, 91%, 42%)
HSV / HSBhsv(19, 95%, 80%)
HWBhwb(19 4% 20%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 65%, 95%, 20%)
LABlab(49.1 50.5 57.4)
LCHlch(49.1 76.4 48.6)
OKLCHoklch(0.580 0.179 39.6)
XYZ (D65)xyz(27.55, 17.64, 2.24)
Decimal13453322
Display P3color(display-p3 0.804 0.282 0.039)
Web-safe#CC3300

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #cd480a;
background-color: #cd480a;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #cd480a;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#cd480a] bg-[#cd480a]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #cd480a;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.804, green: 0.282, blue: 0.039)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.804, green: 0.282, blue: 0.039, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CD480A</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCD480A)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCD480A)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(10, 72, 205)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(205, 72, 10)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(205, 72, 10)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 205, 72, 10)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8039f, 0.2824f, 0.0392f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{205,72,10}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #cd480a 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #cd480a 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7A2B06, #EEDBD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #cd480a 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: #FDF5F2;
  --brand-100: #FBECE5;
  --brand-200: #F9D4C3;
  --brand-300: #FAB494;
  --brand-400: #F78F5F;
  --brand-500: #F56A29;
  --brand-600: #E9520B;
  --brand-700: #cd480a;
  --brand-800: #9C3708;
  --brand-900: #702B0A;
  --brand-950: #461B06;
  --brand: #cd480a;
  --brand-ink: #ffffff;
  --brand-surface: #FAF6F4;
  --brand-border: #EDCEC0;
  --brand-hover: #AB3C08;
  --brand-pressed: #893007;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241914;
    --brand-ink: #EEDBD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDF5F2',
        100: '#FBECE5',
        200: '#F9D4C3',
        300: '#FAB494',
        400: '#F78F5F',
        500: '#F56A29',
        600: '#E9520B',
        700: '#cd480a',
        800: '#9C3708',
        900: '#702B0A',
        950: '#461B06',
        DEFAULT: '#cd480a',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDF5F2,
  '100': #FBECE5,
  '200': #F9D4C3,
  '300': #FAB494,
  '400': #F78F5F,
  '500': #F56A29,
  '600': #E9520B,
  '700': #cd480a,
  '800': #9C3708,
  '900': #702B0A,
  '950': #461B06,
);
$brand-base: #cd480a;
$brand-ink: #ffffff;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDF5F2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBECE5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F9D4C3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FAB494", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F78F5F", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F56A29", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E9520B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#cd480a", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9C3708", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#702B0A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#461B06", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#ffffff", "$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#ffffff on #cd480a · 4.64:1
Use #ffffffAA at every size, AAA for large text only.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 4.64:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 4.53:1
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA fail
Reading the other direction: #cd480a as text scores 4.64:1 on white and 4.53:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #FEEEE7 at 4.11:1.

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
#cd480a · 4.64:1
AA on whitealready passes
#cd480a
The quick fox
#9D3708 · 7.04:1
AAA on white−10% L
#9D3708
The quick fox
#cd480a · 4.53:1
AA on blackalready passes
#cd480a
The quick fox
#F56B2A · 7.02:1
AAA on black+14% L
#F56B2A

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #CD480A 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
#cd480a on white: 4.64:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#cd480a on black: 4.53:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #cd480a as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #cd480a.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White4.64:1AaAa
Slate 504.43:1AaAa
Slate 1004.23:1AaAa
Slate 2003.76:1AaAa
Slate 3003.12:1AaAa
Slate 4001.81:1AaAa
Slate 5001.03:1AaAa
Slate 6001.63:1AaAa
Slate 7002.23:1AaAa
Slate 8003.15:1AaAa
Slate 9003.85:1AaAa
Black4.53:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #706200
deuteranopia · #908000
tritanopia · #E21E3E

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. #cd480a is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FDF5F2
#FBECE5
#F9D4C3
#FAB494
#F78F5F
#F56A29
#E9520B
#cd480a
#9C3708
#702B0A
#461B06
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FDF5F2Darkest = 950 · #461B06Text 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 0.045 39.6);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.072 39.6);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.108 39.6);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.140 39.6);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.165 39.6);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.179 39.6);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.179 39.6);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.168 39.6);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.151 39.6);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.125 39.6);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.099 39.6);
}

Colors that work with #cd480a

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#ffffff
White wins here
Surface#FAF6F4
Tinted page background
Border#EDCEC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B644B
Captions on the surface
Accent#06B9C6
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7A2B06
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEEEE7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241914
Dark-mode background
Hover#AB3C08
One step down in lightness
Pressed#893007
Two steps down
Disabled#B89C90
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#EC4B00
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 #cd480a

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Body text and links on white
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Any size
Safe as a fill behind white type
Yes
Safe as a 1px border on white
Yes

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 low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

Hard to make feel premium, and it collides with the "caution" band in status systems.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight58/100
  • 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#0A8FCD
Analogous left#CD0A2D
Analogous right#CDAA0A
Split-complement 1#0ACDAA
Split-complement 2#0A2DCD
Triadic 1#0ACD48
Triadic 2#480ACD
Tetradic#2DCD0A
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°19°

#cd480a sits at 19°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red80.4%
Green28.2%
Blue3.9%
R · 0–255
205
0xcd
G · 0–255
72
0x48
B · 0–255
10
0x0a

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta64.9%
Yellow95.1%
Key (black)19.6%

Total ink coverage is 180%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#cd480a text on a black background

contrast 4.53:1

Card sample

#cd480a text on a white background

contrast 4.64:1

Card sample

#cd480a on grey

4.23:1

#cd480a on its own surface

4.32:1

#cd480a on its dark surface

3.70:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #cd480a;
Background color
Panel with #cd480a background
background-color: #cd480a;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #cd480a;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(205, 72, 10, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(205, 72, 10, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #cd480a;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #cd480a, #CDCA0A);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cd480a, #9FCD0A);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #cd480a;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #cd480a;
caret-color: #cd480a;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #cd480a;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEEEE7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #cd480a;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#cd480a 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #cd480a 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(205, 72, 10, 0.5)
rgb(205 72 10 / 50%)
#cd480a80
hsl(19 91% 42% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #cd480a 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#cd480a1a#FAEDE7
20%#cd480a33#F5DACE
40%#cd480a66#EBB69D
60%#cd480a99#E1916C
80%#cd480acc#D76D3B

Gradients from #cd480a

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, #F46420, #cd480a 45%, #7A2B06);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #cd480a, #A5B009);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #cd480a, #0A8FCD);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F6783D 0%, #cd480a 45%, #7A2B06 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF6F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F41751 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #EAD40B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7A2B06 0%, transparent 65%), #cd480a;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #cd480a

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.

#cd480a 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 4.53:1.

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.

#cd480a, answered

What color is #cd480a?

#cd480a is a dark electric orange, closest to Chocolate (ΔE2000 9.4). It sits at 19° on the hue wheel with 91% saturation and 42% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #cd480a?

rgb(205, 72, 10) — 205 red, 72 green and 10 blue out of 255, or 80.4% / 28.2% / 3.9% by channel.

What is #cd480a in HSL and HSV?

hsl(19, 91%, 42%) and hsv(19, 95%, 80%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #cd480a a light or a dark color?

It is a dark color. Relative luminance is 0.1764 and perceived brightness is 49%, so white text on it reaches 4.64:1.

Should I use black or white text on #cd480a?

White. It scores 4.64:1 against #cd480a, versus 4.53:1 for black — AA at any size.

Is #cd480a accessible on a white background?

#cd480a on white scores 4.64:1, which clears AA at every size but not AAA.

What is the complementary color of #cd480a?

#0A8FCD sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #0ACDAA and #0A2DCD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #cd480a?

For interface work: #FAF6F4 as the surface, #EDCEC0 for borders, #9B644B for secondary text, #06B9C6 as an accent and #7A2B06 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #CD0A2D and #CDAA0A stays calm, while #0A8FCD is the loudest partner.

What is #cd480a in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 65%, 95%, 20%). 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 #cd480a warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 6 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #E65D0B; nudged cooler, #CF0811.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #cd480a?

The red family — its 500 step is #ef4444, ΔE2000 14 away. That is a visible difference, so define #cd480a as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #cd480a in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#cd480a] or text-[#cd480a], 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 #cd480a with 50% opacity?

rgba(205, 72, 10, 0.5), or #cd480a80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E6A485; over black, #672405.

Is #cd480a a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC3300, ΔE2000 4.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #cd480a 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 #cd480a?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F46420, #cd480a 45%, #7A2B06). For more colour, a short hue run to #A5B009 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #cd480a in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #cd480a at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.