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Apricot Shadow Clear
Color detail

Apricot Shadow Clear

Orange · Hue 40
Metrics
S 54% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white7.1:1AAon black3:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Apricot Shadow Clear (#6E5421) belongs to the orange family — hue 40°, 54% saturation, 28% 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-shadow-clear: #6E5421;
  --colorarchive-apricot-shadow-clear-hsl: hsl(40, 54%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-apricot-shadow-clear-rgb: rgb(110, 84, 33);
}

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 #6E5421.

  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • GitHubaccent
    Attention Yellow · #9A6700
    →
  • Aesopprimary
    Aesop Amber · #5C2E1F
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #6E5421.

  • IcelandLopapeysa Sheep Brown
    #7C5A3A · Natural-dye Icelandic wool
    →
  • IndiaHenna Brown
    #8D5524 · Lawsonia inermis paste
    →
  • IrelandPeat Brown
    #604024 · Cut turf bog, Mayo + Connemara
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using orange and color in design.

Color History1970s Earth Tone Colors: Harvest Gold, Avocado Green & Burnt Orange PalettesColor TheoryWarm Color Palette Guide: Reds, Oranges, Yellows, and Their NeutralsColor TheoryColor in Healthcare Design: Building Palettes That Heal

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 Dusk Clear
#866628 · hsl(40, 54%, 34%)
Darker companion
Apricot Nocturne Clear
#4F3C17 · hsl(40, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Cobalt Shadow Clear
#213B6E · hsl(220, 54%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Citrine Shadow Clear
#6E6E21 · hsl(60, 54%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Vermillion Shadow Clear
#6E3421 · hsl(15, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Teal Shadow Clear
#216E54 · hsl(160, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Mulberry Shadow Clear
#54216E · hsl(280, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Cerulean Shadow Clear
#21616E · hsl(190, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Violet Shadow Clear
#2E216E · hsl(250, 54%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Apricot Shadow Clear #6E5421
Lighter companion: Apricot Dusk Clear #866628
Darker companion: Apricot Nocturne Clear #4F3C17
Complementary counterpoint: Cobalt Shadow Clear #213B6E
Analogous lead: Citrine Shadow Clear #6E6E21
Analogous echo: Vermillion Shadow Clear #6E3421
Triadic +120°: Teal Shadow Clear #216E54
Triadic +240°: Mulberry Shadow Clear #54216E
Split-comp +150°: Cerulean Shadow Clear #21616E
Split-comp +210°: Violet Shadow Clear #2E216E

Compare

See how Apricot Shadow Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsApricot Dusk ClearvsApricot Nocturne ClearvsCobalt Shadow ClearvsCitrine Shadow ClearvsVermillion Shadow ClearvsTeal Shadow Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Apricot Dusk Clear
#866628 · hsl(40, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Saffron Shadow Clear
#6E5B21 · hsl(45, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Apricot Nocturne Clear
#4F3C17 · hsl(40, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Apricot Shadow Soft
#604F2F · hsl(40, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Apricot Shadow Vivid
#7C5913 · hsl(40, 74%, 28%)
Nearby match
Saffron Dusk Clear
#866E28 · hsl(45, 54%, 34%)

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
AAA7:1
Aqua Veil Vivid
#F6FEFE
AAA7:1
Aqua Veil Bright
#F6FEFE
AAA7:1
Aqua Veil Pure
#F5FFFF
AAA7:1
Cyan Veil Pure
#F5FFFE
AAA7:1
Lagoon Veil Pure
#F5FFFD
AAA7:1
Teal Veil Pure
#F5FFFB

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#656736
Protanopia
#646433
Tritanopia
#6D3D3F
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Taupe Gray Shadow#4B4944 · hsl(40, 5%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Faint#4F4A40 · hsl(40, 10%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Muted#544C3B · hsl(40, 18%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Dust#5A4E35 · hsl(40, 26%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Soft#604F2F · hsl(40, 34%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Clear#6E5421 · hsl(40, 54%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Vivid#7C5913 · hsl(40, 74%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Bright#835B0B · hsl(40, 84%, 28%)Apricot Shadow Pure#895D06 · hsl(40, 92%, 28%)
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