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Ember Silk Clear
Color detail

Ember Silk Clear

Orange · Hue 20
Hex
#D99F81
RGB
rgb(217, 159, 129)
HSL
hsl(20, 54%, 68%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 27%, 41%, 15%)
Metrics
S 54% · L 68%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
2.3:1Fail
on black
9.2:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Ember Silk Clear (#D99F81) belongs to the orange family — hue 20°, 54% saturation, 68% 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-silk-clear: #D99F81;
  --colorarchive-ember-silk-clear-hsl: hsl(20, 54%, 68%);
  --colorarchive-ember-silk-clear-rgb: rgb(217, 159, 129);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

CheerfulApproachableWarm
Common in

Children's Products · Wellness · Social Apps

Pairs well with

Soft teal for playful contrast, warm white for minimalism

Design tip

Perfect for onboarding screens and friendly UI. Light oranges feel welcoming without the intensity of pure orange.

Cultural context ▶

Peach and apricot tones are associated with friendliness and optimism. In many Asian cultures, orange symbolizes happiness.

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 confident mid-tone — this is the workhorse register of the hue, and the band where most successful brand colors live.

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 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 #D99F81.

  • Slackaccent
    Slack Yellow · #ECB22E
    →
  • Instagramprimary
    Sunset Yellow · #F58529
    →
  • Bilibili 哔哩哔哩primary
    Bilibili Pink · #FB7299
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #D99F81.

  • ScandinaviaFaded Rose
    #D3A6A0 · Vintage Swedish wallpaper
    →
  • EgyptPapyrus Tan
    #C1A36F · Cyperus papyrus reed paper
    →
  • Italy (Tuscany)Sienese Ochre
    #C68F58 · Iron oxide earth, Siena region
    →

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 Bloom Clear
#E3B7A1 · hsl(20, 54%, 76%)
Darker companion
Ember Tone Clear
#D08762 · hsl(20, 54%, 60%)
Complementary counterpoint
Azure Silk Clear
#81BCD9 · hsl(200, 54%, 68%)
Analogous lead
Saffron Silk Clear
#D9C381 · hsl(45, 54%, 68%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Silk Clear
#D98181 · hsl(0, 54%, 68%)
Triadic +120°
Seafoam Silk Clear
#81D99F · hsl(140, 54%, 68%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Silk Clear
#9F81D9 · hsl(260, 54%, 68%)
Split-comp +150°
Lagoon Silk Clear
#81D9CB · hsl(170, 54%, 68%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Silk Clear
#8190D9 · hsl(230, 54%, 68%)
Export preview
Base: Ember Silk Clear #D99F81
Lighter companion: Ember Bloom Clear #E3B7A1
Darker companion: Ember Tone Clear #D08762
Complementary counterpoint: Azure Silk Clear #81BCD9
Analogous lead: Saffron Silk Clear #D9C381
Analogous echo: Crimson Silk Clear #D98181
Triadic +120°: Seafoam Silk Clear #81D99F
Triadic +240°: Orchid Silk Clear #9F81D9
Split-comp +150°: Lagoon Silk Clear #81D9CB
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Silk Clear #8190D9

Compare

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

vsEmber Bloom ClearvsEmber Tone ClearvsAzure Silk ClearvsSaffron Silk ClearvsCrimson Silk ClearvsSeafoam Silk Clear

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Vermillion Silk Clear
#D99781 · hsl(15, 54%, 68%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Silk Clear
#D9A681 · hsl(25, 54%, 68%)
Nearby match
Ember Tone Clear
#D08762 · hsl(20, 54%, 60%)
Nearby match
Ember Bloom Clear
#E3B7A1 · hsl(20, 54%, 76%)
Nearby match
Ember Silk Soft
#C9A492 · hsl(20, 34%, 68%)
Nearby match
Ember Silk Vivid
#EA9971 · hsl(20, 74%, 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
AAA7:1
Cobalt Ink Muted
#1D222A
AAA7.1:1
Cobalt Ink Dust
#1A212D
AAA7.2:1
Cobalt Ink Soft
#182030
AAA7.4:1
Cobalt Ink Clear
#101D37
AAA7.5:1
Cobalt Ink Vivid
#091B3E
AAA7.5:1
Cobalt Ink Bright
#061A42

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#C6CA8B
Protanopia
#C3C289
Tritanopia
#D78F90
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