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Ember Nocturne Soft
Color detail

Ember Nocturne Soft

Orange · Hue 20
Hex
#442D22
RGB
rgb(68, 45, 34)
HSL
hsl(20, 34%, 20%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 34%, 50%, 73%)
Metrics
S 34% · L 20%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
12.8:1AA
on black
1.6:1Fail
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Ember Nocturne Soft (#442D22) belongs to the orange family — hue 20°, 34% saturation, 20% 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-nocturne-soft: #442D22;
  --colorarchive-ember-nocturne-soft-hsl: hsl(20, 34%, 20%);
  --colorarchive-ember-nocturne-soft-rgb: rgb(68, 45, 34);
}

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 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 the most 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 #442D22.

  • Xiaohongshu 小红书neutral
    Slate Text · #333333
    →
  • JD.com 京东neutral
    Slate · #333333
    →
  • Taobao 淘宝neutral
    Slate · #333333
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #442D22.

  • France (Paris)Bordeaux Wine
    #5C2E2A · Bordeaux region red wine
    →
  • VietnamPho Broth Brown
    #5C3A21 · Anise-and-cinnamon star, slow simmer
    →
  • BrazilAçaí Purple
    #3D1F4D · Euterpe oleracea berry
    →

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 Shadow Soft
#603F2F · hsl(20, 34%, 28%)
Darker companion
Ember Ink Soft
#302018 · hsl(20, 34%, 14%)
Complementary counterpoint
Azure Nocturne Soft
#223944 · hsl(200, 34%, 20%)
Analogous lead
Saffron Nocturne Soft
#443C22 · hsl(45, 34%, 20%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Nocturne Soft
#442222 · hsl(0, 34%, 20%)
Triadic +120°
Seafoam Nocturne Soft
#22442D · hsl(140, 34%, 20%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Nocturne Soft
#2D2244 · hsl(260, 34%, 20%)
Split-comp +150°
Lagoon Nocturne Soft
#22443F · hsl(170, 34%, 20%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Nocturne Soft
#222744 · hsl(230, 34%, 20%)
Export preview
Base: Ember Nocturne Soft #442D22
Lighter companion: Ember Shadow Soft #603F2F
Darker companion: Ember Ink Soft #302018
Complementary counterpoint: Azure Nocturne Soft #223944
Analogous lead: Saffron Nocturne Soft #443C22
Analogous echo: Crimson Nocturne Soft #442222
Triadic +120°: Seafoam Nocturne Soft #22442D
Triadic +240°: Orchid Nocturne Soft #2D2244
Split-comp +150°: Lagoon Nocturne Soft #22443F
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Nocturne Soft #222744

Compare

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

vsEmber Shadow SoftvsEmber Ink SoftvsAzure Nocturne SoftvsSaffron Nocturne SoftvsCrimson Nocturne SoftvsSeafoam Nocturne Soft

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Ember Nocturne Dust
#402F26 · hsl(20, 26%, 20%)
Nearby match
Ember Ink Soft
#302018 · hsl(20, 34%, 14%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Nocturne Soft
#442A22 · hsl(15, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Nocturne Soft
#443022 · hsl(25, 34%, 20%)
Nearby match
Ember Shadow Soft
#603F2F · hsl(20, 34%, 28%)
Nearby match
Ember Nocturne Muted
#3C302A · hsl(20, 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
AAA12.2:1
Azure Veil Faint
#F9FAFA
AAA12.2:1
Azure Veil Muted
#F9FAFB
AAA12.2:1
Azure Veil Dust
#F9FAFB
AAA12.2:1
Azure Veil Soft
#F8FAFC
AAA12.3:1
Azure Veil Clear
#F7FBFD
AAA12.3:1
Azure Veil Vivid
#F6FBFE

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#3D3E26
Protanopia
#3B3B25
Tritanopia
#432728
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