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Ember Ink Soft
Color detail

Ember Ink Soft

Orange · Hue 20
Metrics
S 34% · L 14%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white15.6:1AAon black1.3:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Ember Ink Soft (#302018) belongs to the orange family — hue 20°, 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-ember-ink-soft: #302018;
  --colorarchive-ember-ink-soft-hsl: hsl(20, 34%, 14%);
  --colorarchive-ember-ink-soft-rgb: rgb(48, 32, 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 #302018.

  • Netflixneutral
    Netflix Black · #221F1F
    →
  • Meituan 美团neutral
    Slate Black · #222222
    →
  • Supabaseneutral
    Background Black · #1F1F1F
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #302018.

  • 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 History1970s Earth Tone Colors: Harvest Gold, Avocado Green & Burnt Orange PalettesColor TheoryWarm Color Palette Guide: Reds, Oranges, Yellows, and Their NeutralsColor TheoryColor and Motion: Using Color to Guide Attention in Animated Interfaces

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 Nocturne Soft
#442D22 · hsl(20, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Azure Ink Soft
#182830 · hsl(200, 34%, 14%)
Analogous lead
Saffron Ink Soft
#302A18 · hsl(45, 34%, 14%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Ink Soft
#301818 · hsl(0, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +120°
Seafoam Ink Soft
#183020 · hsl(140, 34%, 14%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Ink Soft
#201830 · hsl(260, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +150°
Lagoon Ink Soft
#18302C · hsl(170, 34%, 14%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Ink Soft
#181C30 · hsl(230, 34%, 14%)
Export preview
Base: Ember Ink Soft #302018
Lighter companion: Ember Nocturne Soft #442D22
Complementary counterpoint: Azure Ink Soft #182830
Analogous lead: Saffron Ink Soft #302A18
Analogous echo: Crimson Ink Soft #301818
Triadic +120°: Seafoam Ink Soft #183020
Triadic +240°: Orchid Ink Soft #201830
Split-comp +150°: Lagoon Ink Soft #18302C
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Ink Soft #181C30

Compare

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

vsEmber Nocturne SoftvsAzure Ink SoftvsSaffron Ink SoftvsCrimson Ink SoftvsSeafoam Ink SoftvsOrchid Ink Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Ember Ink Dust
#2D211A · hsl(20, 26%, 14%)
Nearby match
Ember Nocturne Soft
#442D22 · hsl(20, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Ink Soft
#301E18 · hsl(15, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Ink Soft
#302218 · hsl(25, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Ember Ink Muted
#2A221D · hsl(20, 18%, 14%)
Nearby match
Ember Nocturne Dust
#402F26 · hsl(20, 26%, 20%)

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
AAA14.9:1
Azure Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AAA14.9:1
Azure Veil Muted
#F9FAFB
AAA14.9:1
Azure Veil Dust
#F9FAFB
AAA14.9:1
Azure Veil Soft
#F8FAFC
AAA15:1
Azure Veil Clear
#F7FBFD
AAA15:1
Azure Veil Vivid
#F6FBFE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#2B2C1B
Protanopia
#2A2A1A
Tritanopia
#2F1C1C
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Ember Ink Faint#272320 · hsl(20, 10%, 14%)Ember Ink Muted#2A221D · hsl(20, 18%, 14%)Ember Ink Dust#2D211A · hsl(20, 26%, 14%)Ember Ink Soft#302018 · hsl(20, 34%, 14%)Ember Ink Clear#371D10 · hsl(20, 54%, 14%)Ember Ink Vivid#3E1B09 · hsl(20, 74%, 14%)Ember Ink Bright#421A06 · hsl(20, 84%, 14%)Ember Ink Pure#451903 · hsl(20, 92%, 14%)
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