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Ember Core Soft
Color detail

Ember Core Soft

Orange · Hue 20
Metrics
S 34% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white4.3:1AA Largeon black4.9:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Ember Core Soft (#A46D51) belongs to the orange family — hue 20°, 34% 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-soft: #A46D51;
  --colorarchive-ember-core-soft-hsl: hsl(20, 34%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-ember-core-soft-rgb: rgb(164, 109, 81);
}

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 #A46D51.

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

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #A46D51.

  • Greece (Aegean)Terracotta Tile
    #B85B40 · Fired earthenware roof tiles
    →
  • BrazilSalvador Terracotta
    #B85B40 · Colonial Pelourinho district
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Apple Tea Amber
    #C77D4D · Çay glass tea, ubiquitous Istanbul tradition
    →

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 & MarketingColor Palette for Social Media: Building a Recognizable Visual Brand

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 Soft
#B27C62 · hsl(20, 34%, 54%)
Darker companion
Ember Velvet Soft
#905F47 · hsl(20, 34%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Azure Core Soft
#5188A4 · hsl(200, 34%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Saffron Core Soft
#A48F51 · hsl(45, 34%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Core Soft
#A45151 · hsl(0, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Seafoam Core Soft
#51A46D · hsl(140, 34%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Core Soft
#6D51A4 · hsl(260, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Lagoon Core Soft
#51A496 · hsl(170, 34%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Core Soft
#515FA4 · hsl(230, 34%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Ember Core Soft #A46D51
Lighter companion: Ember Radiant Soft #B27C62
Darker companion: Ember Velvet Soft #905F47
Complementary counterpoint: Azure Core Soft #5188A4
Analogous lead: Saffron Core Soft #A48F51
Analogous echo: Crimson Core Soft #A45151
Triadic +120°: Seafoam Core Soft #51A46D
Triadic +240°: Orchid Core Soft #6D51A4
Split-comp +150°: Lagoon Core Soft #51A496
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Core Soft #515FA4

Compare

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

vsEmber Radiant SoftvsEmber Velvet SoftvsAzure Core SoftvsSaffron Core SoftvsCrimson Core SoftvsSeafoam Core Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Ember Core Dust
#9A705B · hsl(20, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Ember Velvet Soft
#905F47 · hsl(20, 34%, 42%)
Nearby match
Ember Radiant Soft
#B27C62 · hsl(20, 34%, 54%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Core Soft
#A46651 · hsl(15, 34%, 48%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Core Soft
#A47351 · hsl(25, 34%, 48%)
Nearby match
Ember Core Muted
#907364 · hsl(20, 18%, 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
AA Large4.1:1
Azure Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AA Large4.1:1
Azure Veil Muted
#F9FAFB
AA Large4.1:1
Azure Veil Dust
#F9FAFB
AA Large4.1:1
Azure Veil Soft
#F8FAFC
AA Large4.1:1
Azure Veil Clear
#F7FBFD
AA Large4.1:1
Azure Veil Vivid
#F6FBFE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#92965B
Protanopia
#8F8F59
Tritanopia
#A25E60
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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
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