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Apricot Ink Soft
Color detail

Apricot Ink Soft

Orange · Hue 40
Metrics
S 34% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white14.6:1AAon black1.4:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Apricot Ink Soft (#302818) belongs to the orange family — hue 40°, 34% saturation, 14% lightness. Copy the hex, RGB, or HSL value above, or paste the CSS custom property below into your stylesheet to reference this color directly.

CSS
:root {
  --colorarchive-apricot-ink-soft: #302818;
  --colorarchive-apricot-ink-soft-hsl: hsl(40, 34%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-apricot-ink-soft-rgb: rgb(48, 40, 24);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

EarthyArtisanalGrounded
Common in

Coffee & Bakery · Craft & Handmade · Outdoor Gear

Pairs well with

Olive green, warm cream, or slate gray for organic, natural palettes

Design tip

Great for artisanal brands and rustic interfaces. Combines well with textured backgrounds and serif typography.

Cultural context ▶

Burnt orange and terra cotta evoke earthiness, autumn, and craftsmanship. Popular in Southwestern and Mediterranean design.

Color Origins

Orange family

Citrus, fire, and a color named after a fruit.

Heritage

Orange is unusual: in English the color was named after the fruit, not the other way around — the fruit's name arrived in the 14th century, but until the 16th century this hue was simply 'yellow-red'. Earlier pigments included realgar (toxic), saffron (priceless), and orpiment. Cadmium orange, introduced in the 19th century, gave painters from the Impressionists onward a stable, brilliant orange — though cadmium is itself toxic.

Across cultures

In Hindu and Buddhist tradition saffron orange marks renunciation — the robe of Hindu sannyasis and of Theravada monks. The Dutch House of Orange-Nassau gave the Netherlands a national identity color, still worn at football matches and on King's Day. In Ireland, orange is the Protestant counterpart to green's Catholic association — the country's flag literally encodes the divide. Halloween's orange-and-black is a 20th-century American invention that has since gone global.

In the wild

Hermès orange is a brand asset traceable to a 1942 wartime cardboard shortage. Penguin Books color-coded its early paperbacks by genre — orange meant general fiction. Nickelodeon, Fanta, and easyJet all use orange, which reads playful and consumer-friendly while staying outside the more crowded red and yellow lanes. NASA's shuttle-era launch-and-entry suits were International Orange so rescue crews could spot astronauts after a bailout over the ocean.

How it reads

Orange is warm without the urgency of red. It signals appetite (used heavily in fast food), creativity, and approachability. At low saturation it becomes terracotta, rust, or apricot — earthy palettes for hospitality and craft. At high saturation it reads as a sport, energy drink, or warning hazard. Orange and teal is a familiar modern film-grade pairing; the contrast between warm skin tones and cool shadows is engineered for it.

This particular tone

A deep, weighted version of the hue — formal, considered, and pairs especially well with off-white and warm metallic accents.

Lightness band: At this depth the hue starts behaving like a neutral — it can substitute for black in many contexts while still carrying a faint chromatic temperature. It pairs especially well with off-whites and warm metallics.

Saturation band: The clear, mid-saturation register is a common identity sweet spot — saturated enough to register as a 'real' color, restrained enough not to fight typography or photography placed over it.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #302818.

  • Supabaseneutral
    Surface · #2A2A2A
    →
  • Meituan 美团neutral
    Slate Black · #222222
    →
  • Netflixneutral
    Netflix Black · #221F1F
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #302818.

  • Korea (Obangsaek)Obangsaek Black (흑 / heuk)
    #1F1F1F · North — water element, ink and lacquer
    →
  • MexicoVolcanic Black
    #1F1A17 · Obsidian + Popocatépetl basalt
    →
  • China (Traditional)Ink Wash Black (墨)
    #1C1C1C · Pine-soot ink stick (mò)
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using orange and color in design.

Color TheoryWarm Color Palette Guide: Reds, Oranges, Yellows, and Their NeutralsColor History1970s Earth Tone Colors: Harvest Gold, Avocado Green & Burnt Orange PalettesBrand & MarketingLuxury Neutral Color Palette Ideas Without Defaulting to Black and White

Tonal strip

All lightness levels at this hue and saturation. Click any to navigate.

Palette moves

Instead of stopping at one swatch, use nearby, opposite, and tonal neighbors to branch into a broader palette.

Lighter companion
Apricot Nocturne Soft
#443922 · hsl(40, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Cobalt Ink Soft
#182030 · hsl(220, 34%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Citrine Ink Soft
#303018 · hsl(60, 34%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Vermillion Ink Soft
#301E18 · hsl(15, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Teal Ink Soft
#183028 · hsl(160, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Mulberry Ink Soft
#281830 · hsl(280, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Cerulean Ink Soft
#182C30 · hsl(190, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Violet Ink Soft
#1C1830 · hsl(250, 34%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Apricot Ink Soft #302818
Lighter companion: Apricot Nocturne Soft #443922
Complementary counterpoint: Cobalt Ink Soft #182030
Analogous lead: Citrine Ink Soft #303018
Analogous echo: Vermillion Ink Soft #301E18
Triadic +120°: Teal Ink Soft #183028
Triadic +240°: Mulberry Ink Soft #281830
Split-comp +150°: Cerulean Ink Soft #182C30
Split-comp +210°: Violet Ink Soft #1C1830

Compare

See how Apricot Ink Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsApricot Nocturne SoftvsCobalt Ink SoftvsCitrine Ink SoftvsVermillion Ink SoftvsTeal Ink SoftvsMulberry Ink Soft

Nearest neighbors

The closest archive matches by hue, saturation, and lightness.

Search by hex
Nearby match
Apricot Ink Dust
#2D271A · hsl(40, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Apricot Nocturne Soft
#443922 · hsl(40, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Saffron Ink Soft
#302A18 · hsl(45, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Apricot Ink Muted
#2A261D · hsl(40, 18%, 14%)
Nearby match
Apricot Nocturne Dust
#403726 · hsl(40, 26%, 20%)
Nearby match
Apricot Ink Clear
#372A10 · hsl(40, 54%, 14%)

Accessible pairings

Archive colors that meet WCAG contrast standards when paired with this color. Use as text-on-background or background-on-text.

Contrast checker
AAA13.9:1
Cobalt Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AAA13.9:1
Cobalt Veil Muted
#F9FAFB
AAA13.8:1
Cobalt Veil Dust
#F9F9FB
AAA13.8:1
Cobalt Veil Soft
#F8F9FC
AAA13.8:1
Cobalt Veil Clear
#F7F9FD
AAA13.8:1
Cobalt Veil Vivid
#F6F9FE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#2D2E1E
Protanopia
#2D2D1D
Tritanopia
#302021
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Taupe Gray Ink#252422 · hsl(40, 5%, 14%)Apricot Ink Faint#272520 · hsl(40, 10%, 14%)Apricot Ink Muted#2A261D · hsl(40, 18%, 14%)Apricot Ink Dust#2D271A · hsl(40, 26%, 14%)Apricot Ink Soft#302818 · hsl(40, 34%, 14%)Apricot Ink Clear#372A10 · hsl(40, 54%, 14%)Apricot Ink Vivid#3E2D09 · hsl(40, 74%, 14%)Apricot Ink Bright#422E06 · hsl(40, 84%, 14%)Apricot Ink Pure#452F03 · hsl(40, 92%, 14%)
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