Photo in the color Ginger
Pictured: Ginger, the closest color we have a photo of (#B06500)
rgb(175, 111, 9)
#AF6F09

Caramel #AF6F09 RGB Color Code

Name from the community color list.

Caramel (#AF6F09) is a moderately saturated, medium brown. In RGB it is made of 69% red, 44% green and 4% blue (R 175, G 111, B 9). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 37°, 90% saturation and 36% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.205, so black text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 37% magenta, 95% yellow and 31% black. Check it against your printer's ICC profile before you print. It is a warm color. It goes well with cool blues and greens for contrast. For a matching look, use nearby warm tones.

Open in color picker
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Caramel color codes

#AF6F09 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #AF6F09 Valid CSS
RGB rgb(175, 111, 9) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(37, 90%, 36%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(37, 95%, 69%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(37 4% 31%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 37%, 95%, 31%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(59.65% 0.1273 69.4) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(59.65% 0.0448 0.1192) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(52.9% 21.24 57.84) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(52.9% 61.61 69.83) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.6506 0.4466 0.1573) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.2341 0.205 0.0298) Valid CSS
Decimal 11497225 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.2050. Nearest web-safe color: #996600.

Mix Caramel with other colors

See what #AF6F09 makes with red paint, under a green light, printed with cyan ink and in a digital blend with blue. Click a picture to change the colors and amounts in the color mixer.

PaintCaramel and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightCaramel and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintCaramel and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalCaramel blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Caramel in your code

Ready to paste into CSS, Sass, Tailwind, iOS, Android and Flutter. Click the icon to copy a line.

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--caramel: #AF6F09;
Sass variable$caramel: #AF6F09;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-caramel: #AF6F09; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'caramel': '#AF6F09' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.435, blue: 0.035)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.435, blue: 0.035, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="caramel">#FFAF6F09</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFFAF6F09)

Accessibility and contrast

Black text works best on #AF6F09 (5.10:1, AA). Here is how #AF6F09 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4.12:1 on white
APCA Lc 68
AA LargeTry #A76900
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
5.10:1 on black
APCA Lc -34
AA

Check this color against any background in the contrast checker. WCAG ratios and APCA Lc values measure different things, so one can't stand in for the other. Learn more.

How people with color blindness see Caramel

#AF6F09 next to its complement and its two triadic colors, as seen with each type of color blindness.

  • Normal visionhow most people see it
  • Protanopiano red cones, about 1% of men
  • Deuteranopiano green cones, the most common type
  • Tritanopiano blue cones, very rare
  • Achromatopsiano color at all, very rare

#AF6F09 stays easy to tell apart from its complement and triadic colors for the common types of color blindness. Try your own colors in the color blindness simulator.

About the color Caramel

Sugar turned brown

Caramel is what you get when sugar is heated until it browns. The same process makes caramel coloring, one of the oldest and most used food colors. Its shade runs from pale yellow through amber to dark brown. Brewers in the 1800s were the first to make it on a large scale. Today it goes into cola, beer, whisky, gravy and many other foods. In Europe it carries the food code E150, as the Wikipedia article on caramel coloring explains.

Light caramel or dark?

The #AF6F09 on this page is a golden amber brown. It matches "caramel" in the 2010 xkcd color survey, where web users named colors they saw on screen. Wikipedia's alphabetical list of colors gives Caramel as #65350F, a much darker brown. It links to an article on the color that does not exist, so no source backs that code.

Nearby candy colors on this site are butterscotch and toffee. Golden brown is also close.

Caramel in a user interface

A sample app screen with #AF6F09 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #AF6F09 as it is. On the light theme, #AF6F09 is too hard to read as text (4.12:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #A76900 there (4.50:1). On the dark theme, #AF6F09 is too hard to read as text (4.31:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #B27211 there (4.49:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Caramel

These schemes turn the hue of #AF6F09 around the color wheel. Each swatch links to its own page.

Complementary

Two colors on opposite sides of the wheel. This gives the most contrast.

Open palette
this#AF6F09#0949AF

Analogous

Hues that sit next to each other and look good together.

Open palette
#AF1C09this#AF6F09#9CAF09

Triadic

Three hues spaced evenly around the wheel. Bold, but still balanced.

Open palette
this#AF6F09#09AF6F#6F09AF

Split complementary

A base color plus the two hues on each side of its opposite. Strong contrast that clashes less.

Open palette
this#AF6F09#099CAF#1C09AF

Tetradic (rectangle)

Two pairs of opposite colors. Let one color lead and use the others less.

Open palette
this#AF6F09#49AF09#0949AF#6F09AF

Square

Four hues 90° apart, spread evenly around the wheel.

Open palette
this#AF6F09#09AF1C#0949AF#AF099C

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#613E05#B07009#F39F19#F7C067#FBE1B6

Gradients with Caramel

Four CSS gradients made from #AF6F09. Copy the code, or open one in the gradient generator to change it.

Soft tint

From a pale tint to the full color.

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #F0E2D3, #AF6F09);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #AF6F09, #2E1A01);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #AF1C09, #AF6F09, #9CAF09);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

A bold blend with a triadic color, through a clean middle.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #AF6F09, #839248, #09AF6F);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Caramel

Shades are darker, tints are lighter and tones are grayer. We make them in OKLCH so the steps look even. Hover a step to see its code, or click it to open it.

Design system scale (50 to 950)

Caramel sits at step 500. Export the full scale as CSS variables or Tailwind tokens from the picker.

  1. 50
    FFF5EA
  2. 100
    FFE9D1
  3. 200
    FED2A1
  4. 300
    EDB574
  5. 400
    D49446
  6. 500
    AF6F09
  7. 600
    965D00
  8. 700
    784A00
  9. 800
    5E3900
  10. 900
    462900
  11. 950
    2B1802

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #AF6F09 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 8001 Ochre brown#9C6B30, very close (ΔE 4.2)Tailwind CSSyellow-700 #A16207, very close (ΔE 4.4)CSS color namesdarkgoldenrod #B8860B, close (ΔE 6.2)

ΔE is the distance in OKLab: under 2 is hard to see, over 10 is a clearly different color. Browse all RAL colors, the Tailwind palette or the 148 CSS color names. RAL values on screens are only a guide, so check a real color chart before you order paint.

The named colors that look closest to this one (ΔE in OKLab). Browse all shades of brown or search the color library.