#ECA500

sRGB · 236 / 165 / 0

#ECA500 belongs to the orange family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 236 red, 165 green and 0 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 41.9° lands in the orange region. Its 100.0% saturation makes it strong in color at this lightness. HSL lightness is 46.3% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, black has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (9.95:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 236, 165, 0
HSL: 41.95°, 100.00%, 46.27%
HSV / HSB: 41.95°, 100.00%, 92.55%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 30.08%, 100.00%, 7.45%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 48.046, 44.745, 6.106
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 72.724, 15.871, 76.423
WCAG relative luminance: 0.44743
24-bit decimal: 15508736

CMYK uses a profile-free approximation. Printed output depends on the press, ink and paper. Lab uses a D65 white point.

Text contrast

Contrast tells you how clearly lettering separates from #ECA500 in light and dark. The ratio compares relative luminance, a measure of light weighted for human vision. Identical colors give 1:1 and black against white gives 21:1. A ratio of 2.99:1 falls just below the 3:1 AA minimum for large text. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 because its finer strokes are harder to distinguish.

Black text · 9.95:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

White text · 2.11:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: Fail

AA and AAA are WCAG accessibility levels. AAA sets a higher bar: 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text begins at 18 pt regular or 14 pt bold. Ratings use the unrounded ratio. WCAG text contrast guidance

Palettes & scales

Harmonies rotate the hue. Scales mix the starting color with white, black or middle gray in 20% steps in encoded sRGB.

Complementary

#0047EC sits half a turn (180°) from #ECA500 on the HSL wheel. Keeping saturation and lightness steady while crossing to the opposite hue gives you a contrasting accent. Check text contrast separately before using the pair for lettering.

#ECA500 #0047EC

Analogous

#EC2F00 and #BDEC00 sit 30° to either side of #ECA500. The three hues are neighbors on the wheel, so you can change the color of a border or highlight while keeping it close to the original.

#EC2F00 #ECA500 #BDEC00

Triadic

#ECA500, #00ECA5 and #A500EC are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#ECA500 #00ECA5 #A500EC

Split complementary

Start at #ECA500 and look across the wheel. #00BDEC and #2F00EC sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#ECA500 #00BDEC #2F00EC

Square

Starting with #ECA500, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #00EC2F, #0047EC, then #EC00BD. Across the square, #ECA500 pairs with #0047EC, and #00EC2F with #EC00BD.

#ECA500 #00EC2F #0047EC #EC00BD

Tetradic

#ECA500 and #0047EC are opposites, as are #47EC00 and #A500EC. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#ECA500 #47EC00 #0047EC #A500EC

Tints

Mixing #ECA500 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #F0B733, keeps 80% of the original. By #FBEDCC, the mixture is 80% white.

#ECA500 #F0B733 #F4C966 #F7DB99 #FBEDCC #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #ECA500 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BD8400, keeps 80% of the original. By #2F2100, the mixture is 80% black.

#ECA500 #BD8400 #8E6300 #5E4200 #2F2100 #000000

Tones

Mixing #ECA500 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #D69E1A, keeps 80% of the original. By #968766, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#ECA500 #D69E1A #C19633 #AB8F4D #968766 #808080

Copy color codes

Hex, RGB and HSL are three ways to write this screen color. Paste any of them into a CSS color property.

Hex

#ECA500

RGB

rgb(236 165 0)

HSL

hsl(41.949 100.000% 46.275%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #ECA500;
  color: #000000;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#ECA500 uses 236 red, 165 green and 0 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 92.5%

Green 64.7%

Blue 0.0%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #ECA500 is 0.0% cyan, 30.1% magenta, 100.0% yellow and 7.5% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 30.1%

Yellow 100.0%

Black 7.5%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #EEAA00. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #EA0 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #ECA500 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #FF9900, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand · #EEAA00 Nearest web-safe · #FF9900

Gradient to complement

#ECA500 #C59527 #9D864F #767676 #4F669D #2757C5 #0047EC

Color vision previews

Compare how #ECA500 appears in each simulation. When two chart lines or status indicators become hard to tell apart, a label, shape or line pattern gives readers another way to distinguish them. Individual perception varies.

Protanopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from long-wavelength cones, some reds and greens can look alike, and reds can appear darker.

#BFA800

Deuteranopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from medium-wavelength cones, some greens can be difficult to distinguish from reds or browns.

#D0B912

Tritanopia

A blue–yellow color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from short-wavelength cones, blue can resemble green, and yellow can resemble pink.

#FF918C

Protanomaly (50%)

An altered long-wavelength cone response can make reds appear dimmer and harder to distinguish from greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#D1A900

Deuteranomaly (50%)

An altered medium-wavelength cone response can reduce the visible difference between reds and greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#D8B205

Tritanomaly (50%)

An altered short-wavelength cone response can make blue harder to distinguish from green. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#EFA159

Grayscale (luminance)

This design check removes hue and preserves relative luminance so you can compare light and dark areas.

#B2B2B2

Partial grayscale (50% blend)

This design check mixes the original color halfway toward its grayscale equivalent in linear light. Use it to see how a design holds up as color fades.

#D2AC82

Technical reference

CAM16 and CIECAM02 below assume D65 white, an average surround, background Y of 20 against white at 100, and adapting luminance of 4.07 cd/m².

Linear sRGB

These channels scale with emitted light. Use them for lighting calculations and physically meaningful blends.

R 0.83880 G 0.37626 B 0.00000

Display P3

P3 displays can reproduce a wider range of reds and greens. These coordinates reproduce this same sRGB swatch on a color-managed P3 display.

R 0.88429 G 0.65886 B 0.22538

Linear Display P3

These P3 channels are proportional to light, before display encoding.

R 0.75668 G 0.39162 B 0.04157

CIE xyY

The x and y coordinates locate chromaticity on a diagram. Y gives relative luminance on a scale where white is 100.

x 0.486 y 0.452 Y 44.745

CMY

Ideal cyan, magenta and yellow are the complements of the encoded red, green and blue channels.

C % 7.451 M % 35.294 Y % 100.000

Binary RGB

Each eight-bit group represents one channel. Together they store the 24-bit hex color.

11101100 10100101 00000000