Photo in the color Radical Red
Pictured: Radical Red, the closest color we have a photo of (#FF355E)
rgb(253, 70, 89)
#FD4659

Watermelon #FD4659 RGB Color Code

Name from the community color list.

Watermelon (#FD4659) is a vivid, medium red. In RGB it is made of 99% red, 27% green and 35% blue (R 253, G 70, B 89). The red channel is the strongest. In HSL it has a hue of 354°, 98% saturation and 63% lightness. Its relative luminance is 0.260, so black text is easier to read on top of it. For print, a rough CMYK match is 0% cyan, 72% magenta, 65% yellow and 1% 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
ConverterPalette generatorContrast checkerGradient builderUI previewSimilar names

Watermelon color codes

#FD4659 in every common color format. Click a value to copy it.

FormatValueNotesCopy
HEX #FD4659 Valid CSS
RGB rgb(253, 70, 89) Valid CSS
HSL hsl(354, 98%, 63%) Valid CSS
HSV / HSB hsv(354, 72%, 99%) Not a CSS format
HWB hwb(354 27% 1%) Valid CSS
CMYK cmyk(0%, 72%, 65%, 1%) Approximate (no ICC profile)
OKLCH oklch(66.51% 0.2178 19.99) Valid CSS
OKLab oklab(66.51% 0.2047 0.0744) Valid CSS
CIELAB lab(58.84% 69.86 33.13) D50, as in CSS
CIELCH lch(58.84% 77.32 25.37) Valid CSS
Display P3 color(display-p3 0.9157 0.3351 0.369) Valid CSS
XYZ (D65) color(xyz-d65 0.445 0.2599 0.1212) Valid CSS
Decimal 16598617 Integer (0xRRGGBB)

CMYK here is a rough screen match without an ICC profile. See CMYK and print. Relative luminance: 0.2598. Nearest web-safe color: #FF3366.

Mix Watermelon with other colors

See what #FD4659 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.

PaintWatermelon and red paintOpen in the color mixer
LightWatermelon and green lightOpen in the color mixer
PrintWatermelon and cyan inkOpen in the color mixer
DigitalWatermelon blended with blueOpen in the color mixer

Use Watermelon in your code

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

WhereCodeCopy
CSS variable--watermelon: #FD4659;
Sass variable$watermelon: #FD4659;
Tailwind CSS v4@theme { --color-watermelon: #FD4659; }
Tailwind CSS v3 configcolors: { 'watermelon': '#FD4659' }
SwiftUIColor(red: 0.992, green: 0.275, blue: 0.349)
UIKitUIColor(red: 0.992, green: 0.275, blue: 0.349, alpha: 1)
Android XML<color name="watermelon">#FFFD4659</color>
Flutter and Jetpack ComposeColor(0xFFFD4659)

Accessibility and contrast

Black text works best on #FD4659 (6.20:1, AA). Here is how #FD4659 does as a text color:

Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
3.39:1 on white
APCA Lc 60
AA LargeTry #E32845
Large heading text
Body text at 16px. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
6.20:1 on black
APCA Lc -42
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 Watermelon

#FD4659 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

#FD4659 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 Watermelon

The color of the flesh

Watermelon #FD4659 is a warm, pinkish red. The name and code come from the 2010 xkcd survey, where thousands of web users named colors they saw on screen. It copies the inside of the fruit, Citrullus lanatus. Its red flesh gets its color from lycopene, the same pigment that makes tomatoes red. The watermelon article says the fruit was first grown as a crop in Sudan.

Two watermelons in the lists

Wikipedia's alphabetical color list gives Watermelon as #F05C85, a pinker shade. It links to the fruit article, which has no color section, so that code has no clear source. The two codes do not match. The xkcd shade is redder and brighter.

Crayola has its own wild watermelon, and there is a hotter sizzling watermelon too. White text on #FD4659 reaches only 3.39 to 1, which is fine for big headings but too low for body text. Black text does better, at 6.2 to 1.

Watermelon in a user interface

A sample app screen with #FD4659 as the main color, on a light and a dark theme.

Light theme

Dark theme

Buttons and bars use #FD4659 as it is. On the light theme, #FD4659 is too hard to read as text (3.39:1), so links, the badge and outline text use #E32845 there (4.51:1). Build a full color scheme around it in the UI color preview.

Color harmonies for Watermelon

These schemes turn the hue of #FD4659 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#FD4659#46FDEA

Analogous

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

Open palette
#FD46B5this#FD4659#FD8F46

Triadic

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

Open palette
this#FD4659#59FD46#4659FD

Split complementary

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

Open palette
this#FD4659#46FD8F#46B5FD

Tetradic (rectangle)

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

Open palette
this#FD4659#FDEA46#46FDEA#4659FD

Square

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

Open palette
this#FD4659#B5FD46#46FDEA#8F46FD

Monochromatic

One hue at different levels of lightness and saturation.

Open palette
#65010B#B70215#FC0F28#FD6172#FEB3BB

Gradients with Watermelon

Four CSS gradients made from #FD4659. 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, #FFDFDE, #FD4659);

Edit in the gradient generator

Deep shade

The color fading into a dark shade.

background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FD4659, #470D13);

Edit in the gradient generator

Analogous

Its two neighbors on the color wheel.

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #FD46B5, #FD4659, #FD8F46);

Edit in the gradient generator

Triadic

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

background: linear-gradient(135deg, #FD4659, #D2B055, #59FD46);

Edit in the gradient generator

Shades, tints and tones of Watermelon

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)

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

  1. 50
    FFF4F3
  2. 100
    FFE6E5
  3. 200
    FFCCCB
  4. 300
    FFA4A4
  5. 400
    FF6C73
  6. 500
    FD4659
  7. 600
    CA0033
  8. 700
    A20027
  9. 800
    80001D
  10. 900
    600013
  11. 950
    3A060C

Closest RAL, Tailwind and CSS colors

The nearest match to #FD4659 in three color systems that designers and builders use.

RAL ClassicRAL 2005 Luminous orange#FF2300, close (ΔE 6.1)Tailwind CSSrose-500 #F43F5E, very close (ΔE 2.4)CSS color namestomato #FF6347, close (ΔE 5.9)

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.