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Vermillion Shadow Soft
Color detail

Vermillion Shadow Soft

Orange · Hue 15
Metrics
S 34% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white9.7:1AAon black2.2:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Vermillion Shadow Soft (#603B2F) belongs to the orange family — hue 15°, 34% 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-vermillion-shadow-soft: #603B2F;
  --colorarchive-vermillion-shadow-soft-hsl: hsl(15, 34%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-vermillion-shadow-soft-rgb: rgb(96, 59, 47);
}

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 #603B2F.

  • Aesopprimary
    Aesop Amber · #5C2E1F
    →
  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #603B2F.

  • VietnamPho Broth Brown
    #5C3A21 · Anise-and-cinnamon star, slow simmer
    →
  • IrelandPeat Brown
    #604024 · Cut turf bog, Mayo + Connemara
    →
  • France (Paris)Bordeaux Wine
    #5C2E2A · Bordeaux region red wine
    →

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 NeutralsBrand & MarketingLuxury Neutral Color Palette Ideas Without Defaulting to Black and White

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
Vermillion Dusk Soft
#744839 · hsl(15, 34%, 34%)
Darker companion
Vermillion Nocturne Soft
#442A22 · hsl(15, 34%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Cerulean Shadow Soft
#2F5860 · hsl(190, 34%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Apricot Shadow Soft
#604F2F · hsl(40, 34%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Merlot Shadow Soft
#602F37 · hsl(350, 34%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Mint Shadow Soft
#2F6037 · hsl(130, 34%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Violet Shadow Soft
#372F60 · hsl(250, 34%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Teal Shadow Soft
#2F604F · hsl(160, 34%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Cobalt Shadow Soft
#2F3F60 · hsl(220, 34%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Vermillion Shadow Soft #603B2F
Lighter companion: Vermillion Dusk Soft #744839
Darker companion: Vermillion Nocturne Soft #442A22
Complementary counterpoint: Cerulean Shadow Soft #2F5860
Analogous lead: Apricot Shadow Soft #604F2F
Analogous echo: Merlot Shadow Soft #602F37
Triadic +120°: Mint Shadow Soft #2F6037
Triadic +240°: Violet Shadow Soft #372F60
Split-comp +150°: Teal Shadow Soft #2F604F
Split-comp +210°: Cobalt Shadow Soft #2F3F60

Compare

See how Vermillion Shadow Soft compares side by side with related colors.

vsVermillion Dusk SoftvsVermillion Nocturne SoftvsCerulean Shadow SoftvsApricot Shadow SoftvsMerlot Shadow SoftvsMint Shadow Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Vermillion Shadow Dust
#5A3E35 · hsl(15, 26%, 28%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Dusk Soft
#744839 · hsl(15, 34%, 34%)
Nearby match
Ruby Shadow Soft
#60372F · hsl(10, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Ember Shadow Soft
#603F2F · hsl(20, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Nocturne Soft
#442A22 · hsl(15, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Shadow Muted
#54413B · hsl(15, 18%, 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
AAA9.3:1
Cerulean Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AAA9.3:1
Cerulean Veil Muted
#F9FBFB
AAA9.3:1
Cerulean Veil Dust
#F9FBFB
AAA9.3:1
Cerulean Veil Soft
#F8FBFC
AAA9.4:1
Cerulean Veil Clear
#F7FCFD
AAA9.4:1
Cerulean Veil Vivid
#F6FCFE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#545733
Protanopia
#525232
Tritanopia
#5F3535
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Vermillion Shadow Faint#4F4440 · hsl(15, 10%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Muted#54413B · hsl(15, 18%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Dust#5A3E35 · hsl(15, 26%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Soft#603B2F · hsl(15, 34%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Clear#6E3421 · hsl(15, 54%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Vivid#7C2D13 · hsl(15, 74%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Bright#83290B · hsl(15, 84%, 28%)Vermillion Shadow Pure#892706 · hsl(15, 92%, 28%)
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