We're live on Product Hunt!Support us
ColorArchive

A curated color library with 5,446 algorithmically generated colors. Browse, search, save favorites, and export palette tokens — no account required.

CollectionsFamiliesBrandsRegionsJournalNotesGuidesFree ResourcesEmbed widgetConvertColorblindAboutSupportUpdatesiOS app
Ready for static export
Privacy·Terms·Refunds·Cookies·Commerce Disclosure
colorarchive.org · © 2026 ColorArchive
Skip to content
ColorArchive
ProLog in
ArchiveAll ColorsCollections
Ember Core Clear
Color detail

Ember Core Clear

Orange · Hue 20
Metrics
S 54% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white4.2:1AA Largeon black5:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Ember Core Clear (#BC6438) belongs to the orange family — hue 20°, 54% saturation, 48% 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-ember-core-clear: #BC6438;
  --colorarchive-ember-core-clear-hsl: hsl(20, 54%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-ember-core-clear-rgb: rgb(188, 100, 56);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

CreativeAdventurousConfident
Common in

Technology · Sports · Travel

Pairs well with

Deep blue for trust + energy balance, dark gray for modern tech aesthetics

Design tip

Use for creative tool brands and action-oriented interfaces. Orange buttons consistently outperform other colors in A/B tests for engagement.

Cultural context ▶

Orange represents creativity and adventure. In the Netherlands, it's the national color. In Hinduism, it symbolizes purity.

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 confident mid-tone — this is the workhorse register of the hue, and the band where many brand colors live.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where many identity colors live: bright enough to be distinctive at small sizes, deep enough to sit cleanly on a white canvas.

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 #BC6438.

  • Anthropicaccent
    claude.ai Accent (2024) · #C96442
    →
  • Notionaccent
    Default Brown · #9F6B53
    →
  • GitHubaccent
    Attention Yellow · #9A6700
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #BC6438.

  • Greece (Aegean)Terracotta Tile
    #B85B40 · Fired earthenware roof tiles
    →
  • BrazilSalvador Terracotta
    #B85B40 · Colonial Pelourinho district
    →
  • MoroccoPisé Terracotta
    #C75B3D · Sun-dried earth wall construction
    →

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 NeutralsAccessibilityColor Accessibility Beyond WCAG Contrast Ratios

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
Ember Radiant Clear
#C9754A · hsl(20, 54%, 54%)
Darker companion
Ember Velvet Clear
#A55831 · hsl(20, 54%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Azure Core Clear
#3890BC · hsl(200, 54%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Saffron Core Clear
#BC9B38 · hsl(45, 54%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Core Clear
#BC3838 · hsl(0, 54%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Seafoam Core Clear
#38BC64 · hsl(140, 54%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Core Clear
#6438BC · hsl(260, 54%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Lagoon Core Clear
#38BCA6 · hsl(170, 54%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Core Clear
#384EBC · hsl(230, 54%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Ember Core Clear #BC6438
Lighter companion: Ember Radiant Clear #C9754A
Darker companion: Ember Velvet Clear #A55831
Complementary counterpoint: Azure Core Clear #3890BC
Analogous lead: Saffron Core Clear #BC9B38
Analogous echo: Crimson Core Clear #BC3838
Triadic +120°: Seafoam Core Clear #38BC64
Triadic +240°: Orchid Core Clear #6438BC
Split-comp +150°: Lagoon Core Clear #38BCA6
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Core Clear #384EBC

Compare

See how Ember Core Clear compares side by side with related colors.

vsEmber Radiant ClearvsEmber Velvet ClearvsAzure Core ClearvsSaffron Core ClearvsCrimson Core ClearvsSeafoam Core Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Ember Velvet Clear
#A55831 · hsl(20, 54%, 42%)
Nearby match
Ember Radiant Clear
#C9754A · hsl(20, 54%, 54%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Core Clear
#BC5938 · hsl(15, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Core Clear
#BC6F38 · hsl(25, 54%, 48%)
Nearby match
Ember Tone Clear
#D08762 · hsl(20, 54%, 60%)
Nearby match
Ember Core Soft
#A46D51 · hsl(20, 34%, 48%)

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
AA4.5:1
Iris Ink Vivid
#09093E
AA4.5:1
Iris Ink Bright
#060642
AA4.6:1
Iris Ink Pure
#030345
AA4.5:1
Amethyst Ink Vivid
#0E093E
AA4.5:1
Amethyst Ink Bright
#0B0642
AA4.5:1
Amethyst Ink Pure
#080345

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#A2A849
Protanopia
#9E9D46
Tritanopia
#B94F51
Color of the Day

Like Ember Core Clear? Get one like it every morning.

One hand-picked color a day — with its hex, family, and the story behind it.

Get a color every morning

One email per day. Unsubscribe anytime.

Ready to build

Turn these colors into design tokens

Copy the CSS variables and the Tailwind class free, right here. ColorArchive Pro lifts the daily export limit — 10 a day signed in, 3 without an account.

Upgrade to ProFree downloadView collections

Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Ember Core Faint#87766E · hsl(20, 10%, 48%)Ember Core Muted#907364 · hsl(20, 18%, 48%)Ember Core Dust#9A705B · hsl(20, 26%, 48%)Ember Core Soft#A46D51 · hsl(20, 34%, 48%)Ember Core Clear#BC6438 · hsl(20, 54%, 48%)Ember Core Vivid#D55C20 · hsl(20, 74%, 48%)Ember Core Bright#E15814 · hsl(20, 84%, 48%)Ember Core Pure#EB550A · hsl(20, 92%, 48%)
More from Orange →
Appears in collections
Jazz Club