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yellow · warm

#f5f5f2

a pale, muted yellow · warm · closest name: White Smoke

Token name suggestion: Chalk Straw

RGB
245, 245, 242
HSL
60°, 13%, 96%
CMYK
0, 0, 1, 4
Luminance
0.9113

#f5f5f2 is a pale muted yellow, 60° on the wheel and 41/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (19.23:1). As text it scores 1.09:1 on white — use #78785C instead. Nearest name is White Smoke, nearest Tailwind family is cyan.

hsl(60 13% 96%)rgb(245 245 242)Base step 50AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #f5f5f2 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#f5f5f2
Hue
60°
yellow
Saturation
13%
muted
Lightness
96%
pale
Brightness
96%
HSV value
Perceived
96%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.9113
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
41/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Muted
Best ink
Black
19.23:1
Closest name
White Smoke
ΔE2000 1.6
Chroma
1.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.969
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
cyan
500 · ΔE 29.8
Web-safe
#FFFFFF
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue60° of 360°
Saturation13%
Lightness96%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #f5f5f2.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool41% 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
Red21%
Green72%
Blue7%

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

Every format

HEX#f5f5f2
HEX (8-digit)#f5f5f2ff
RGBrgb(245, 245, 242)
RGBArgba(245, 245, 242, 1)
HSLhsl(60, 13%, 96%)
HSV / HSBhsv(60, 1%, 96%)
HWBhwb(60 95% 4%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 0%, 1%, 4%)
LABlab(96.5 -0.5 1.4)
LCHlch(96.5 1.5 110.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.969 0.004 106.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(86.33, 91.13, 97.03)
Decimal16119282
Display P3color(display-p3 0.961 0.961 0.949)
Web-safe#FFFFFF

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #f5f5f2;
background-color: #f5f5f2;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #f5f5f2;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#f5f5f2] bg-[#f5f5f2]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #f5f5f2;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.961, green: 0.961, blue: 0.949)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.961, green: 0.961, blue: 0.949, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#F5F5F2</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFF5F5F2)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFF5F5F2)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(242, 245, 245)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(245, 245, 242)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(245, 245, 242)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 245, 245, 242)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9608f, 0.9608f, 0.9490f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{245,245,242}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #f5f5f2 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #f5f5f2 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#484837, #E4E4DC);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #f5f5f2 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: #f5f5f2;
  --brand-100: #F1F1EE;
  --brand-200: #E2E2DA;
  --brand-300: #CECEC0;
  --brand-400: #B6B6A0;
  --brand-500: #9D9D80;
  --brand-600: #8A8A6A;
  --brand-700: #737359;
  --brand-800: #5C5C47;
  --brand-900: #454536;
  --brand-950: #2B2B22;
  --brand: #f5f5f2;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F8F8F6;
  --brand-border: #DCDCD1;
  --brand-hover: #E5E5DE;
  --brand-pressed: #D6D6CA;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #202018;
    --brand-ink: #E4E4DC;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#f5f5f2',
        100: '#F1F1EE',
        200: '#E2E2DA',
        300: '#CECEC0',
        400: '#B6B6A0',
        500: '#9D9D80',
        600: '#8A8A6A',
        700: '#737359',
        800: '#5C5C47',
        900: '#454536',
        950: '#2B2B22',
        DEFAULT: '#f5f5f2',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #f5f5f2,
  '100': #F1F1EE,
  '200': #E2E2DA,
  '300': #CECEC0,
  '400': #B6B6A0,
  '500': #9D9D80,
  '600': #8A8A6A,
  '700': #737359,
  '800': #5C5C47,
  '900': #454536,
  '950': #2B2B22,
);
$brand-base: #f5f5f2;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#f5f5f2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F1F1EE", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E2E2DA", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#CECEC0", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#B6B6A0", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#9D9D80", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#8A8A6A", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#737359", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#5C5C47", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#454536", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2B2B22", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #f5f5f2 · 19.23:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.09:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 19.23:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #f5f5f2 as text scores 1.09:1 on white and 19.23:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #484837 at 8.52:1.

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
#78785C · 4.53:1
AA on white−54% L
#78785C
The quick fox
#585844 · 7.26:1
AAA on white−65% L
#585844
The quick fox
#f5f5f2 · 19.23:1
AA on blackalready passes
#f5f5f2
The quick fox
#f5f5f2 · 19.23:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#f5f5f2

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #969676 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
#f5f5f2 on white: 1.09:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#f5f5f2 on black: 19.23:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #f5f5f2 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #f5f5f2.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.09:1AaAa
Slate 501.04:1AaAa
Slate 1001.00:1AaAa
Slate 2001.13:1AaAa
Slate 3001.36:1AaAa
Slate 4002.35:1AaAa
Slate 5004.36:1AaAa
Slate 6006.94:1AaAa
Slate 7009.48:1AaAa
Slate 80013.39:1AaAa
Slate 90016.34:1AaAa
Black19.23:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #F6F5F2
deuteranopia · #F6F5F2
tritanopia · #F6F5F4

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. #f5f5f2 is pinned to step 50; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#f5f5f2
#F1F1EE
#E2E2DA
#CECEC0
#B6B6A0
#9D9D80
#8A8A6A
#737359
#5C5C47
#454536
#2B2B22
Base = 50Lightest = 50 · #f5f5f2Darkest = 950 · #2B2B22Text 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 0.001 106.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.002 106.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.002 106.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.003 106.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.004 106.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.004 106.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.004 106.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.004 106.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.003 106.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.003 106.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.002 106.5);
}

Colors that work with #f5f5f2

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#F8F8F6
Tinted page background
Border#DCDCD1
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#828264
Captions on the surface
Accent#596273
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#484837
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F4F4F1
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#202018
Dark-mode background
Hover#E5E5DE
One step down in lightness
Pressed#D6D6CA
Two steps down
Disabled#F6F6F3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#EFEFE6
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 #f5f5f2

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Borders, dividers and quiet backgrounds
  • Long-form reading 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
  • Thin strokes and 1px borders — they disappear on light UI
  • 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 #484837
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #969676

Meaning and mood

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

optimisticalertcheap-and-cheerfulvisible

The most visible hue at low light levels, which is why it owns warnings, hazard tape and value retail.

With almost no chroma left, the family association is barely present; treat it as a neutral that happens to lean this way. The high lightness makes it recede — a surface colour rather than a statement.

Worth knowing

Almost never passes contrast against white. Treat it as a surface or a marker, not as text.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyLow
  • Weight5/100
  • TemperatureWarm
  • ApproachabilityBalanced

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#F2F2F5
Analogous left#F5F4F2
Analogous right#F4F5F2
Split-complement 1#F2F4F5
Split-complement 2#F4F2F5
Triadic 1#F2F5F5
Triadic 2#F5F2F5
Tetradic#F2F5F4
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°60°

#f5f5f2 sits at 60°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red96.1%
Green96.1%
Blue94.9%
R · 0–255
245
0xf5
G · 0–255
245
0xf5
B · 0–255
242
0xf2

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow1.2%
Key (black)3.9%

Total ink coverage is 5%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#f5f5f2 text on a black background

contrast 19.23:1

Card sample

#f5f5f2 text on a white background

contrast 1.09:1

Card sample

#f5f5f2 on grey

1.00:1

#f5f5f2 on its own surface

1.03:1

#f5f5f2 on its dark surface

15.01:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #f5f5f2;
Background color
Panel with #f5f5f2 background
background-color: #f5f5f2;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #f5f5f2;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(245, 245, 242, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(245, 245, 242, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #f5f5f2;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #f5f5f2, #F3F5F2);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #f5f5f2, #F2F5F2);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #f5f5f2;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #f5f5f2;
caret-color: #f5f5f2;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #f5f5f2;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F4F4F1;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #f5f5f2;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#f5f5f2 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #f5f5f2 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, 245, 242, 0.5)
rgb(245 245 242 / 50%)
#f5f5f280
hsl(60 13% 96% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #f5f5f2 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#f5f5f21a#FEFEFE
20%#f5f5f233#FDFDFC
40%#f5f5f266#FBFBFA
60%#f5f5f299#F9F9F7
80%#f5f5f2cc#F7F7F5

Gradients from #f5f5f2

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, #F6F6F3, #f5f5f2 45%, #484837);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #f5f5f2, #E2E8E1);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #f5f5f2, #F2F2F5);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F8F8F6 0%, #f5f5f2 45%, #484837 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F8F8F6, #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%, #484837 0%, transparent 65%), #f5f5f2;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #f5f5f2

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.

#f5f5f2 in the real world

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

Industries
RetailLeisureEnergyWarning systems
Common UI roles
BackgroundsBordersBody textDividers
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 19.23:1.

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.

#f5f5f2, answered

What color is #f5f5f2?

#f5f5f2 is a pale muted yellow, closest to White Smoke (ΔE2000 1.6). It sits at 60° on the hue wheel with 13% saturation and 96% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #f5f5f2?

rgb(245, 245, 242) — 245 red, 245 green and 242 blue out of 255, or 96.1% / 96.1% / 94.9% by channel.

What is #f5f5f2 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(60, 13%, 96%) and hsv(60, 1%, 96%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #f5f5f2 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.9113 and perceived brightness is 96%, so black text on it reaches 19.23:1.

Should I use black or white text on #f5f5f2?

Black. It scores 19.23:1 against #f5f5f2, versus 1.09:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #f5f5f2 accessible on a white background?

#f5f5f2 on white scores 1.09:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #78785C to reach 4.5:1, or #585844 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #f5f5f2?

#F2F2F5 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #F2F4F5 and #F4F2F5, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #f5f5f2?

For interface work: #F8F8F6 as the surface, #DCDCD1 for borders, #828264 for secondary text, #596273 as an accent and #484837 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #F5F4F2 and #F4F5F2 stays calm, while #F2F2F5 is the loudest partner.

What is #f5f5f2 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 0%, 1%, 4%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #f5f5f2 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 41 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #F5F4F2; nudged cooler, #F4F5F2.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #f5f5f2?

The cyan family — its 500 step is #06b6d4, ΔE2000 29.8 away. That is a visible difference, so define #f5f5f2 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #f5f5f2 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#f5f5f2] or text-[#f5f5f2], 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 #f5f5f2 with 50% opacity?

rgba(245, 245, 242, 0.5), or #f5f5f280 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #FAFAF9; over black, #7B7B79.

Is #f5f5f2 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FFFFFF, ΔE2000 2.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #f5f5f2 mean?

As a yellow, it reads optimistic, alert, cheap-and-cheerful. The most visible hue at low light levels, which is why it owns warnings, hazard tape and value retail. At this low chroma the association is faint; it behaves more like a neutral.

What gradient works with #f5f5f2?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F6F6F3, #f5f5f2 45%, #484837). For more colour, a short hue run to #E2E8E1 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #f5f5f2 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #f5f5f2 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.