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red · warm

#f5ecee

a pale, soft red · warm · closest name: Lavender Blush

Token name suggestion: Chalk Ember

RGB
245, 236, 238
HSL
347°, 31%, 94%
CMYK
0, 4, 3, 4
Luminance
0.8558

#f5ecee is a pale soft red, 347° on the wheel and 27/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.12:1). As text it scores 1.16:1 on white — use #AB6070 instead. Nearest name is Lavender Blush, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(347 31% 94%)rgb(245 236 238)Base step 100AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #f5ecee is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#f5ecee
Hue
347°
red
Saturation
31%
soft
Lightness
94%
pale
Brightness
96%
HSV value
Perceived
94%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8558
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
27/100 cool
Color family
Red
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
18.12:1
Closest name
Lavender Blush
ΔE2000 3.2
Chroma
3.4
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.951
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 32.6
Web-safe
#FFFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue347° of 360°
Saturation31%
Lightness94%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #f5ecee.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool27% 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
Red23%
Green70%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#f5ecee
HEX (8-digit)#f5eceeff
RGBrgb(245, 236, 238)
RGBArgba(245, 236, 238, 1)
HSLhsl(347, 31%, 94%)
HSV / HSBhsv(347, 4%, 96%)
HWBhwb(347 93% 4%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 4%, 3%, 4%)
LABlab(94.1 3.4 0.1)
LCHlch(94.1 3.4 1.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.951 0.010 2.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(83.08, 85.58, 93.01)
Decimal16116974
Display P3color(display-p3 0.961 0.925 0.933)
Web-safe#FFFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #f5ecee;
background-color: #f5ecee;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #f5ecee;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#f5ecee] bg-[#f5ecee]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #f5ecee;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.961, green: 0.925, blue: 0.933)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.961, green: 0.925, blue: 0.933, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#F5ECEE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFF5ECEE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFF5ECEE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(238, 236, 245)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(245, 236, 238)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(245, 236, 238)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 245, 236, 238)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9608f, 0.9255f, 0.9333f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{245,236,238}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #f5ecee 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #f5ecee 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#542C35, #EAD7DB);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #f5ecee 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: #F9F6F6;
  --brand-100: #f5ecee;
  --brand-200: #E7D5D9;
  --brand-300: #D8B6BD;
  --brand-400: #C5919C;
  --brand-500: #B26C7B;
  --brand-600: #A05465;
  --brand-700: #864654;
  --brand-800: #6B3844;
  --brand-900: #4F2C33;
  --brand-950: #311B20;
  --brand: #f5ecee;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF5F6;
  --brand-border: #E3CACF;
  --brand-hover: #E9D5D9;
  --brand-pressed: #DCBDC4;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #241417;
    --brand-ink: #EAD7DB;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F6F6',
        100: '#f5ecee',
        200: '#E7D5D9',
        300: '#D8B6BD',
        400: '#C5919C',
        500: '#B26C7B',
        600: '#A05465',
        700: '#864654',
        800: '#6B3844',
        900: '#4F2C33',
        950: '#311B20',
        DEFAULT: '#f5ecee',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F6F6,
  '100': #f5ecee,
  '200': #E7D5D9,
  '300': #D8B6BD,
  '400': #C5919C,
  '500': #B26C7B,
  '600': #A05465,
  '700': #864654,
  '800': #6B3844,
  '900': #4F2C33,
  '950': #311B20,
);
$brand-base: #f5ecee;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F6F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#f5ecee", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E7D5D9", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D8B6BD", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C5919C", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#B26C7B", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#A05465", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#864654", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#6B3844", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4F2C33", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#311B20", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #f5ecee · 18.12:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.16:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.12:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #f5ecee as text scores 1.16:1 on white and 18.12:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #542C35 at 10.13:1.

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
#AB6070 · 4.53:1
AA on white−42% L
#AB6070
The quick fox
#834553 · 7.14:1
AAA on white−55% L
#834553
The quick fox
#f5ecee · 18.12:1
AA on blackalready passes
#f5ecee
The quick fox
#f5ecee · 18.12:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#f5ecee

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #BE8491 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
#f5ecee on white: 1.16:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#f5ecee on black: 18.12:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #f5ecee as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #f5ecee.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.16:1AaAa
Slate 501.11:1AaAa
Slate 1001.06:1AaAa
Slate 2001.06:1AaAa
Slate 3001.28:1AaAa
Slate 4002.21:1AaAa
Slate 5004.11:1AaAa
Slate 6006.54:1AaAa
Slate 7008.93:1AaAa
Slate 80012.62:1AaAa
Slate 90015.40:1AaAa
Black18.12:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #EDEDEE
deuteranopia · #EFEFEE
tritanopia · #F7ECED

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. #f5ecee is pinned to step 100; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9F6F6
#f5ecee
#E7D5D9
#D8B6BD
#C5919C
#B26C7B
#A05465
#864654
#6B3844
#4F2C33
#311B20
Base = 100Lightest = 50 · #F9F6F6Darkest = 950 · #311B20Text step on white = 600
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 0.003 2.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.004 2.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.006 2.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.008 2.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.009 2.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.010 2.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.010 2.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.009 2.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.008 2.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.007 2.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.006 2.0);
}

Colors that work with #f5ecee

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#FAF5F6
Tinted page background
Border#E3CACF
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#964F5F
Captions on the surface
Accent#3F8D69
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#542C35
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6EEF0
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#241417
Dark-mode background
Hover#E9D5D9
One step down in lightness
Pressed#DCBDC4
Two steps down
Disabled#F7F3F4
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#F3E2E6
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 #f5ecee

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #542C35
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #BE8491

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

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
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight6/100
  • 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#ECF5F3
Analogous left#F5ECF2
Analogous right#F5EEEC
Split-complement 1#ECF5EE
Split-complement 2#ECF2F5
Triadic 1#EEF5EC
Triadic 2#ECEEF5
Tetradic#F2F5EC
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°347°

#f5ecee sits at 347°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red96.1%
Green92.5%
Blue93.3%
R · 0–255
245
0xf5
G · 0–255
236
0xec
B · 0–255
238
0xee

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta3.7%
Yellow2.9%
Key (black)3.9%

Total ink coverage is 11%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#f5ecee text on a black background

contrast 18.12:1

Card sample

#f5ecee text on a white background

contrast 1.16:1

Card sample

#f5ecee on grey

1.06:1

#f5ecee on its own surface

1.07:1

#f5ecee on its dark surface

15.26:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #f5ecee;
Background color
Panel with #f5ecee background
background-color: #f5ecee;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #f5ecee;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(245, 236, 238, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(245, 236, 238, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #f5ecee;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #f5ecee, #F5F0EC);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #f5ecee, #F5F2EC);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #f5ecee;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #f5ecee;
caret-color: #f5ecee;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #f5ecee;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6EEF0;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #f5ecee;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#f5ecee 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #f5ecee 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(245, 236, 238, 0.5)
rgb(245 236 238 / 50%)
#f5ecee80
hsl(347 31% 94% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #f5ecee 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#f5ecee1a#FEFDFD
20%#f5ecee33#FDFBFC
40%#f5ecee66#FBF7F8
60%#f5ecee99#F9F4F5
80%#f5eceecc#F7F0F1

Gradients from #f5ecee

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, #F8F2F3, #f5ecee 45%, #542C35);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #f5ecee, #EAE2D8);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #f5ecee, #ECF5F3);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #FAF5F6 0%, #f5ecee 45%, #542C35 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF5F6, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #FFFFFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #FFFFFF 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #542C35 0%, transparent 65%), #f5ecee;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #f5ecee

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.

#f5ecee 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

Very light tints can drop out on uncoated stock; check it at 100% size before signing off.

On screens

Very light values are indistinguishable from white on a dim phone screen outdoors. Give it a border if the boundary matters.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 18.12:1.

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.

#f5ecee, answered

What color is #f5ecee?

#f5ecee is a pale soft red, closest to Lavender Blush (ΔE2000 3.2). It sits at 347° on the hue wheel with 31% saturation and 94% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #f5ecee?

rgb(245, 236, 238) — 245 red, 236 green and 238 blue out of 255, or 96.1% / 92.5% / 93.3% by channel.

What is #f5ecee in HSL and HSV?

hsl(347, 31%, 94%) and hsv(347, 4%, 96%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #f5ecee a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8558 and perceived brightness is 94%, so black text on it reaches 18.12:1.

Should I use black or white text on #f5ecee?

Black. It scores 18.12:1 against #f5ecee, versus 1.16:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #f5ecee accessible on a white background?

#f5ecee on white scores 1.16:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #AB6070 to reach 4.5:1, or #834553 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #f5ecee?

#ECF5F3 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #ECF5EE and #ECF2F5, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #f5ecee?

For interface work: #FAF5F6 as the surface, #E3CACF for borders, #964F5F for secondary text, #3F8D69 as an accent and #542C35 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #F5ECF2 and #F5EEEC stays calm, while #ECF5F3 is the loudest partner.

What is #f5ecee in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 4%, 3%, 4%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #f5ecee warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 27 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #F5EDEC; nudged cooler, #F5ECF1.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #f5ecee?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 32.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #f5ecee as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #f5ecee in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#f5ecee] or text-[#f5ecee], 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 #f5ecee with 50% opacity?

rgba(245, 236, 238, 0.5), or #f5ecee80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #FAF6F7; over black, #7B7677.

Is #f5ecee a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FFFFFF, ΔE2000 5.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #f5ecee 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #f5ecee?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F8F2F3, #f5ecee 45%, #542C35). For more colour, a short hue run to #EAE2D8 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #f5ecee in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #f5ecee at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.