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Tangerine Tone Faint
Color detail

Tangerine Tone Faint

Orange · Hue 25
Hex
#A3978F
RGB
rgb(163, 151, 143)
HSL
hsl(25, 10%, 60%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 7%, 12%, 36%)
Metrics
S 10% · L 60%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
2.8:1Fail
on black
7.4:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Tangerine Tone Faint (#A3978F) belongs to the orange family — hue 25°, 10% 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-tangerine-tone-faint: #A3978F;
  --colorarchive-tangerine-tone-faint-hsl: hsl(25, 10%, 60%);
  --colorarchive-tangerine-tone-faint-rgb: rgb(163, 151, 143);
}

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 #A3978F.

  • Notionneutral
    Notion Gray · #787774
    →
  • Microsoftneutral
    Slate Gray · #737373
    →
  • Redditsecondary
    Periwinkle · #7193FF
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #A3978F.

  • Greece (Aegean)Olive Silver
    #9CA38F · Olea europaea leaf undersides
    →
  • IcelandLichen Green
    #9CA577 · Cetraria islandica
    →
  • IrelandConnemara Marble
    #8DA48A · Mottled green-grey native marble
    →

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
Tangerine Silk Faint
#B6ACA5 · hsl(25, 10%, 68%)
Darker companion
Tangerine Radiant Faint
#95887E · hsl(25, 10%, 54%)
Complementary counterpoint
Steel Tone Faint
#8F9BA3 · hsl(205, 10%, 60%)
Analogous lead
Amber Tone Faint
#A3A08F · hsl(50, 10%, 60%)
Analogous echo
Crimson Tone Faint
#A38F8F · hsl(0, 10%, 60%)
Triadic +120°
Celadon Tone Faint
#8FA397 · hsl(145, 10%, 60%)
Triadic +240°
Orchid Tone Faint
#968FA3 · hsl(260, 10%, 60%)
Split-comp +150°
Cyan Tone Faint
#8FA3A2 · hsl(175, 10%, 60%)
Split-comp +210°
Indigo Tone Faint
#8F92A3 · hsl(230, 10%, 60%)
Export preview
Base: Tangerine Tone Faint #A3978F
Lighter companion: Tangerine Silk Faint #B6ACA5
Darker companion: Tangerine Radiant Faint #95887E
Complementary counterpoint: Steel Tone Faint #8F9BA3
Analogous lead: Amber Tone Faint #A3A08F
Analogous echo: Crimson Tone Faint #A38F8F
Triadic +120°: Celadon Tone Faint #8FA397
Triadic +240°: Orchid Tone Faint #968FA3
Split-comp +150°: Cyan Tone Faint #8FA3A2
Split-comp +210°: Indigo Tone Faint #8F92A3

Compare

See how Tangerine Tone Faint compares side by side with related colors.

vsTangerine Silk FaintvsTangerine Radiant FaintvsSteel Tone FaintvsAmber Tone FaintvsCrimson Tone FaintvsCeladon Tone Faint

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Tangerine Tone Muted
#AB9687 · hsl(25, 18%, 60%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Radiant Faint
#95887E · hsl(25, 10%, 54%)
Nearby match
Ember Tone Faint
#A3968F · hsl(20, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Coral Tone Faint
#A3998F · hsl(30, 10%, 60%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Silk Faint
#B6ACA5 · hsl(25, 10%, 68%)
Nearby match
Tangerine Tone Dust
#B4957E · hsl(25, 26%, 60%)

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
AA5.5:1
Steel Ink Faint
#202427
AA5.5:1
Steel Ink Muted
#1D252A
AA5.5:1
Steel Ink Dust
#1A252D
AA5.4:1
Steel Ink Soft
#182630
AA5.4:1
Steel Ink Clear
#102737
AA5.3:1
Steel Ink Vivid
#09283E

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#9FA091
Protanopia
#9E9E91
Tritanopia
#A29393
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