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Apricot Shadow Muted
Color detail

Apricot Shadow Muted

Orange · Hue 40
Hex
#544C3B
RGB
rgb(84, 76, 59)
HSL
hsl(40, 18%, 28%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 10%, 30%, 67%)
Metrics
S 18% · L 28%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
8.5:1AA
on black
2.5:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Apricot Shadow Muted (#544C3B) belongs to the orange family — hue 40°, 18% 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-apricot-shadow-muted: #544C3B;
  --colorarchive-apricot-shadow-muted-hsl: hsl(40, 18%, 28%);
  --colorarchive-apricot-shadow-muted-rgb: rgb(84, 76, 59);
}

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 the only color named after a fruit.

Heritage

Orange is unusual: in English the color was named after the fruit, not the other way around — before the fruit reached Europe in 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 that didn't fade or poison.

Across cultures

In Hindu and Buddhist tradition saffron orange marks renunciation — the robe of monks across Theravada and Tibetan lineages. 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 used orange-and-white spines as a class signal — fiction was always orange. Nickelodeon, Fanta, and easyJet all chose orange for the same reason: it reads playful and consumer-friendly while staying outside the more crowded red and yellow lanes. NASA flight suits use International Orange specifically because nothing in nature matches it, making astronauts maximally visible against any background.

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 the most common modern film-grade pairing; the contrast between warm skin tones and cool shadows is engineered for it.

This particular tone

A dim, atmospheric reading — closer to a colored shadow than a stated hue. Excellent as a near-black on dark UI or as a moody background.

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 low saturation pulls this color toward earthen, vintage, or editorial palettes. It reads as confident and grown-up rather than playful, and it tolerates being used in large blocks without becoming visually noisy.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #544C3B.

  • Airbnbneutral
    Hof Gray · #484848
    →
  • Aesopprimary
    Aesop Amber · #5C2E1F
    →
  • 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 #544C3B.

  • IrelandPeat Brown
    #604024 · Cut turf bog, Mayo + Connemara
    →
  • VietnamPho Broth Brown
    #5C3A21 · Anise-and-cinnamon star, slow simmer
    →
  • ScandinaviaForest Green
    #3D5B49 · Spruce / fir forest in winter light
    →

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
Apricot Dusk Muted
#665C47 · hsl(40, 18%, 34%)
Darker companion
Apricot Nocturne Muted
#3C362A · hsl(40, 18%, 20%)
Complementary counterpoint
Cobalt Shadow Muted
#3B4354 · hsl(220, 18%, 28%)
Analogous lead
Citrine Shadow Muted
#54543B · hsl(60, 18%, 28%)
Analogous echo
Vermillion Shadow Muted
#54413B · hsl(15, 18%, 28%)
Triadic +120°
Teal Shadow Muted
#3B544C · hsl(160, 18%, 28%)
Triadic +240°
Mulberry Shadow Muted
#4C3B54 · hsl(280, 18%, 28%)
Split-comp +150°
Cerulean Shadow Muted
#3B5054 · hsl(190, 18%, 28%)
Split-comp +210°
Violet Shadow Muted
#3F3B54 · hsl(250, 18%, 28%)
Export preview
Base: Apricot Shadow Muted #544C3B
Lighter companion: Apricot Dusk Muted #665C47
Darker companion: Apricot Nocturne Muted #3C362A
Complementary counterpoint: Cobalt Shadow Muted #3B4354
Analogous lead: Citrine Shadow Muted #54543B
Analogous echo: Vermillion Shadow Muted #54413B
Triadic +120°: Teal Shadow Muted #3B544C
Triadic +240°: Mulberry Shadow Muted #4C3B54
Split-comp +150°: Cerulean Shadow Muted #3B5054
Split-comp +210°: Violet Shadow Muted #3F3B54

Compare

See how Apricot Shadow Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsApricot Dusk MutedvsApricot Nocturne MutedvsCobalt Shadow MutedvsCitrine Shadow MutedvsVermillion Shadow MutedvsTeal Shadow Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Apricot Shadow Faint
#4F4A40 · hsl(40, 10%, 28%)
Nearby match
Apricot Shadow Dust
#5A4E35 · hsl(40, 26%, 28%)
Nearby match
Apricot Dusk Muted
#665C47 · hsl(40, 18%, 34%)
Nearby match
Saffron Shadow Muted
#544E3B · hsl(45, 18%, 28%)
Nearby match
Taupe Gray Shadow
#4B4944 · hsl(40, 5%, 28%)
Nearby match
Apricot Nocturne Muted
#3C362A · hsl(40, 18%, 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
AAA8.1:1
Cobalt Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AAA8.1:1
Cobalt Veil Muted
#F9FAFB
AAA8.1:1
Cobalt Veil Dust
#F9F9FB
AAA8.1:1
Cobalt Veil Soft
#F8F9FC
AAA8.1:1
Cobalt Veil Clear
#F7F9FD
AAA8:1
Cobalt Veil Vivid
#F6F9FE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#515241
Protanopia
#515140
Tritanopia
#544344
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