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Coral Tone Muted
Color detail

Coral Tone Muted

Orange · Hue 30
Hex
#AB9987
RGB
rgb(171, 153, 135)
HSL
hsl(30, 18%, 60%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 11%, 21%, 33%)
Metrics
S 18% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
2.7:1Fail
on black
7.6:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Coral Tone Muted (#AB9987) belongs to the orange family — hue 30°, 18% saturation, 60% 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-coral-tone-muted: #AB9987;
  --colorarchive-coral-tone-muted-hsl: hsl(30, 18%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-coral-tone-muted-rgb: rgb(171, 153, 135);
}

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 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 grounded mid-tone — sober, considered, well-suited to body text accents, editorial layouts, or any context where restraint reads as quality.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where most identity colors live: bright enough to be distinctive at small sizes, deep enough to sit cleanly on a white canvas.

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 #AB9987.

  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →
  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Brick · #C96442
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #AB9987.

  • Greece (Aegean)Olive Silver
    #9CA38F · Olea europaea leaf undersides
    →
  • IcelandLichen Green
    #9CA577 · Cetraria islandica
    →
  • EgyptPapyrus Tan
    #C1A36F · Cyperus papyrus reed paper
    →

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
Coral Silk Muted
#BCAD9F · hsl(30, 18%, 68%)
Darker companion
Coral Radiant Muted
#9F8A75 · hsl(30, 18%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Sapphire Tone Muted
#8799AB · hsl(210, 18%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Canary Tone Muted
#ABA887 · hsl(55, 18%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Scarlet Tone Muted
#AB8A87 · hsl(5, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Jade Tone Muted
#87AB99 · hsl(150, 18%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Plum Tone Muted
#9987AB · hsl(270, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Aqua Tone Muted
#87ABAB · hsl(180, 18%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Iris Tone Muted
#8787AB · hsl(240, 18%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Coral Tone Muted #AB9987
Lighter companion: Coral Silk Muted #BCAD9F
Darker companion: Coral Radiant Muted #9F8A75
Complementary counterpoint: Sapphire Tone Muted #8799AB
Analogous lead: Canary Tone Muted #ABA887
Analogous echo: Scarlet Tone Muted #AB8A87
Triadic +120°: Jade Tone Muted #87AB99
Triadic +240°: Plum Tone Muted #9987AB
Split-comp +150°: Aqua Tone Muted #87ABAB
Split-comp +210°: Iris Tone Muted #8787AB

Compare

See how Coral Tone Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsCoral Silk MutedvsCoral Radiant MutedvsSapphire Tone MutedvsCanary Tone MutedvsScarlet Tone MutedvsJade Tone Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Coral Tone Faint
#A3998F · hsl(30, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Coral Tone Dust
#B4997E · hsl(30, 26%, 60%)
Nearby match
Coral Radiant Muted
#9F8A75 · hsl(30, 18%, 54%)
Nearby match
Warm Gray Tone
#9F9993 · hsl(30, 6%, 60%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Tone Muted
#AB9687 · hsl(25, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Coral Silk Muted
#BCAD9F · hsl(30, 18%, 68%)

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
AA4.6:1
Sapphire Nocturne Faint
#2E3338
AA4.7:1
Sapphire Nocturne Muted
#2A333C
AA4.7:1
Sapphire Nocturne Dust
#263340
AA4.7:1
Sapphire Nocturne Soft
#223344
AA4.7:1
Sapphire Nocturne Clear
#17334F
AA4.7:1
Sapphire Nocturne Vivid
#0D3359

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#A5A68D
Protanopia
#A4A38C
Tritanopia
#AA8F90
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Appears in collections
Chalk and CoralBiophilic CalmSage and TerracottaTerracotta Studio