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 Shadow Clear
Color detail

Ember Shadow Clear

Orange · Hue 20
Metrics
S 54% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white9.1:1AAon black2.3:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Ember Shadow Clear (#6E3B21) belongs to the orange family — hue 20°, 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-ember-shadow-clear: #6E3B21;
  --colorarchive-ember-shadow-clear-hsl: hsl(20, 54%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-ember-shadow-clear-rgb: rgb(110, 59, 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 #6E3B21.

  • Aesopprimary
    Aesop Amber · #5C2E1F
    →
  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Coca-Colaneutral
    Pantone 484 (depth) · #9C2A2C
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #6E3B21.

  • IrelandPeat Brown
    #604024 · Cut turf bog, Mayo + Connemara
    →
  • VietnamPho Broth Brown
    #5C3A21 · Anise-and-cinnamon star, slow simmer
    →
  • Italy (Tuscany)Chianti Wine
    #722F37 · Sangiovese grape
    →

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 Psychology in Branding: What Research Actually Says vs. Design Myths

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 Dusk Clear
#864728 · hsl(20, 54%, 34%)
Darker companion
Ember Nocturne Clear
#4F2A17 · hsl(20, 54%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Azure Shadow Clear
#21546E · hsl(200, 54%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Saffron Shadow Clear
#6E5B21 · hsl(45, 54%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Shadow Clear
#6E2121 · hsl(0, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Seafoam Shadow Clear
#216E3B · hsl(140, 54%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Shadow Clear
#3B216E · hsl(260, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Lagoon Shadow Clear
#216E61 · hsl(170, 54%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Shadow Clear
#212E6E · hsl(230, 54%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Ember Shadow Clear #6E3B21
Lighter companion: Ember Dusk Clear #864728
Darker companion: Ember Nocturne Clear #4F2A17
Complementary counterpoint: Azure Shadow Clear #21546E
Analogous lead: Saffron Shadow Clear #6E5B21
Analogous echo: Crimson Shadow Clear #6E2121
Triadic +120°: Seafoam Shadow Clear #216E3B
Triadic +240°: Orchid Shadow Clear #3B216E
Split-comp +150°: Lagoon Shadow Clear #216E61
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Shadow Clear #212E6E

Compare

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

vsEmber Dusk ClearvsEmber Nocturne ClearvsAzure Shadow ClearvsSaffron Shadow ClearvsCrimson Shadow ClearvsSeafoam Shadow Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Ember Dusk Clear
#864728 · hsl(20, 54%, 34%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Shadow Clear
#6E3421 · hsl(15, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Shadow Clear
#6E4121 · hsl(25, 54%, 28%)
Nearby match
Ember Nocturne Clear
#4F2A17 · hsl(20, 54%, 20%)
Nearby match
Ember Shadow Soft
#603F2F · hsl(20, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Ember Shadow Vivid
#7C3613 · hsl(20, 74%, 28%)

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
AAA8.7:1
Azure Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AAA8.7:1
Azure Veil Muted
#F9FAFB
AAA8.7:1
Azure Veil Dust
#F9FAFB
AAA8.7:1
Azure Veil Soft
#F8FAFC
AAA8.7:1
Azure Veil Clear
#F7FBFD
AAA8.7:1
Azure Veil Vivid
#F6FBFE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#5F622B
Protanopia
#5C5C29
Tritanopia
#6C2E2F
Color of the Day

Like Ember Shadow 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 Shadow Faint#4F4540 · hsl(20, 10%, 28%)Ember Shadow Muted#54433B · hsl(20, 18%, 28%)Ember Shadow Dust#5A4135 · hsl(20, 26%, 28%)Ember Shadow Soft#603F2F · hsl(20, 34%, 28%)Ember Shadow Clear#6E3B21 · hsl(20, 54%, 28%)Ember Shadow Vivid#7C3613 · hsl(20, 74%, 28%)Ember Shadow Bright#83330B · hsl(20, 84%, 28%)Ember Shadow Pure#893206 · hsl(20, 92%, 28%)
More from Orange →