Photo in the color Dark terra cotta
Pictured: Dark terra cotta
rgb(204, 78, 92)
#CC4E5C

Dark Terra Cotta #CC4E5C RGB Color Code

Dark Terra Cotta (#CC4E5C) is a vivid, medium red. In RGB it is made of 80% red, 31% green and 36% blue (R 204, G 78, B 92). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 353°, 55% saturation and 55% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.191, so black text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 62% magenta, 55% yellow and 20% 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.

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Dark Terra Cotta color codes

#CC4E5C in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #CC4E5C Valid CSS
RGB rgb(204, 78, 92) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(353, 55%, 55%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(353, 62%, 80%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(353 31% 20%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 62%, 55%, 20%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(59.53% 0.1598 16.8) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(59.53% 0.153 0.0462) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(51.32% 51.6 19.73) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(51.32% 55.24 20.92) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.742 0.3384 0.3707) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.2956 0.1906 0.1225) Valid CSS
Decimal 13389404 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.1906. Nearest web-safe color: #CC6666.

Mix Dark Terra Cotta with other colors

See what #CC4E5C 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.

PaintDark Terra Cotta and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightDark Terra Cotta and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintDark Terra Cotta and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalDark Terra Cotta blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Dark Terra Cotta in your code

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

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--dark-terra-cotta: #CC4E5C;
Sass variable$dark-terra-cotta: #CC4E5C;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-dark-terra-cotta: #CC4E5C; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'dark-terra-cotta': '#CC4E5C' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.8, green: 0.306, blue: 0.361)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.8, green: 0.306, blue: 0.361, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="dark_terra_cotta">#FFCC4E5C</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFFCC4E5C)

Accessibility and contrast

Black text works best on #CC4E5C (4.81:1, AA). Here is how #CC4E5C does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4.36:1 on white
APCA Lc 69
AA LargeTry #C94C5A
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
4.81:1 on black
APCA Lc -32
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 Dark Terra Cotta

#CC4E5C 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

#CC4E5C 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 Dark Terra Cotta

Not much like clay

Terra cotta is Italian for baked earth. The words name the brown orange clay used for flower pots and roof tiles, as the Wikipedia article on terracotta explains. Dark terra cotta, #CC4E5C, looks quite different. It is a rose red that leans a little toward blue, closer to a deep rose than to a clay pot.

Where the code comes from

In 2013 the same Wikipedia article listed this shade with Encycolor as its only source. No paint or standard stands behind it. Plain terra cotta on this site is #E2725B, which that version took from a thread maker's color list.

Black text gets 4.81 to 1 on dark terra cotta and passes for normal text. White gets 4.36 to 1, so keep it for large headings. You can try both in the contrast checker.

Dark Terra Cotta in a user interface

A sample app screen with #CC4E5C as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #CC4E5C as it is. On the light theme, #CC4E5C is too hard to read as text (4.36:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #C94C5A there (4.50:1). On the dark theme, #CC4E5C is too hard to read as text (4.07:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #D55663 there (4.52:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Dark Terra Cotta

These schemes turn the hue of #CC4E5C 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#CC4E5C#4ECCBE

Analogous

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

Open palette
#CC4E9Bthis#CC4E5C#CC7F4E

Triadic

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

Open palette
this#CC4E5C#5CCC4E#4E5CCC

Split complementary

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

Open palette
this#CC4E5C#4ECC7F#4E9BCC

Tetradic (rectangle)

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

Open palette
this#CC4E5C#CCBE4E#4ECCBE#4E5CCC

Square

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

Open palette
this#CC4E5C#9BCC4E#4ECCBE#7F4ECC

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#4F171D#902935#C94352#DB838D#EEC4C8

Gradients with Dark Terra Cotta

Four CSS gradients made from #CC4E5C. 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, #F9DCDD, #CC4E5C);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #CC4E5C, #370F14);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #CC4E9B, #CC4E5C, #CC7F4E);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

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

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #CC4E5C, #AB9458, #5CCC4E);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Dark Terra Cotta

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)

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

  1. 50
    FFF4F4
  2. 100
    FFE6E6
  3. 200
    FFCCCD
  4. 300
    FFA4A8
  5. 400
    F37781
  6. 500
    CC4E5C
  7. 600
    B43A4A
  8. 700
    952637
  9. 800
    771929
  10. 900
    58121D
  11. 950
    330F13

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #CC4E5C in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 3017 Rose#D3545F, nearly the same (ΔE 1.9)Tailwind CSSrose-600 #E11D48, close (ΔE 6.3)CSS color namesindianred #CD5C5C, very close (ΔE 2.9)

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 red or search the color library.