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Vermillion Core Dust
Color detail

Vermillion Core Dust

Orange · Hue 15
Hex
#9A6A5B
RGB
rgb(154, 106, 91)
HSL
hsl(15, 26%, 48%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 31%, 41%, 40%)
Metrics
S 26% · L 48%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
4.6:1AA
on black
4.6:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Vermillion Core Dust (#9A6A5B) belongs to the orange family — hue 15°, 26% saturation, 48% 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-vermillion-core-dust: #9A6A5B;
  --colorarchive-vermillion-core-dust-hsl: hsl(15, 26%, 48%);
  --colorarchive-vermillion-core-dust-rgb: rgb(154, 106, 91);
}

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 #9A6A5B.

  • Notionaccent
    Default Brown · #9F6B53
    →
  • 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 #9A6A5B.

  • Greece (Aegean)Terracotta Tile
    #B85B40 · Fired earthenware roof tiles
    →
  • BrazilSalvador Terracotta
    #B85B40 · Colonial Pelourinho district
    →
  • IcelandLopapeysa Sheep Brown
    #7C5A3A · Natural-dye Icelandic wool
    →

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
Vermillion Radiant Dust
#A87A6B · hsl(15, 26%, 54%)
Darker companion
Vermillion Velvet Dust
#875D4F · hsl(15, 26%, 42%)
Complementary counterpoint
Cerulean Core Dust
#5B909A · hsl(190, 26%, 48%)
Analogous lead
Apricot Core Dust
#9A855B · hsl(40, 26%, 48%)
Analogous echo
Merlot Core Dust
#9A5B65 · hsl(350, 26%, 48%)
Triadic +120°
Mint Core Dust
#5B9A65 · hsl(130, 26%, 48%)
Triadic +240°
Violet Core Dust
#655B9A · hsl(250, 26%, 48%)
Split-comp +150°
Teal Core Dust
#5B9A85 · hsl(160, 26%, 48%)
Split-comp +210°
Cobalt Core Dust
#5B709A · hsl(220, 26%, 48%)
Export preview
Base: Vermillion Core Dust #9A6A5B
Lighter companion: Vermillion Radiant Dust #A87A6B
Darker companion: Vermillion Velvet Dust #875D4F
Complementary counterpoint: Cerulean Core Dust #5B909A
Analogous lead: Apricot Core Dust #9A855B
Analogous echo: Merlot Core Dust #9A5B65
Triadic +120°: Mint Core Dust #5B9A65
Triadic +240°: Violet Core Dust #655B9A
Split-comp +150°: Teal Core Dust #5B9A85
Split-comp +210°: Cobalt Core Dust #5B709A

Compare

See how Vermillion Core Dust compares side by side with related colors.

vsVermillion Radiant DustvsVermillion Velvet DustvsCerulean Core DustvsApricot Core DustvsMerlot Core DustvsMint Core Dust

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Vermillion Core Muted
#906F64 · hsl(15, 18%, 48%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Core Soft
#A46651 · hsl(15, 34%, 48%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Velvet Dust
#875D4F · hsl(15, 26%, 42%)
Nearby match
Vermillion Radiant Dust
#A87A6B · hsl(15, 26%, 54%)
Nearby match
Ruby Core Dust
#9A655B · hsl(10, 26%, 48%)
Nearby match
Ember Core Dust
#9A705B · hsl(20, 26%, 48%)

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
AA4.5:1
Aqua Veil Clear
#F7FDFD
AA4.5:1
Aqua Veil Vivid
#F6FEFE
AA4.5:1
Aqua Veil Bright
#F6FEFE
AA4.5:1
Aqua Veil Pure
#F5FFFF
AA4.5:1
Cyan Veil Vivid
#F6FEFD
AA4.5:1
Cyan Veil Bright
#F6FEFD

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#8A8E60
Protanopia
#88875F
Tritanopia
#986262
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