Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Brown (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #A52A2A
- RGB
- rgb(165, 42, 42)
- HSL
- hsl(0, 59%, 41%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.481 0.16 26)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 75%, 75%, 35%)
--color-brownbg-[#A52A2A]Accessibility
Score: 71/100On White (#FFF)
7.08:1
On Black (#000)
2.96:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
6.5:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #A52A2A
color: #A52A2A
bg-[#A52A2A] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #A52A2A
Color Harmonies
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Brown is the color of soil, wood, leather, coffee, and chocolate — all things that develop richness through time and organic processes. It is the most grounded color, with no flashiness, no pretension. Brands that use brown often want to communicate that they are slow, intentional, and built to last.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Brown is applied in professional design.
- Coffee shops and specialty beverage brands
- Chocolate and premium confectionery
- Outdoor gear and hiking equipment
- Furniture and home furnishing brands
- Craft beer and artisanal food products
- Leather goods and accessories
- Organic and natural food products
- Heritage and classic whiskey/spirits brands
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Passes AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Brown is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (7.08:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #A52A2A;Text
color: #A52A2A;Border
border: 2px solid #A52A2A;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #A52A2A40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #A52A2A, #dc5c53);Tailwind-style
--color-brown: #A52A2A;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Brown without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#A52A2A]Text
text-[#A52A2A]Border
border-[#A52A2A]Ring
ring-[#A52A2A]Fill
fill-[#A52A2A]From (gradient)
from-[#A52A2A]Via (gradient)
via-[#A52A2A]To (gradient)
to-[#A52A2A]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Brown design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-brown: #A52A2A;
--color-brown-rgb: 165, 42, 42;
--color-brown-hsl: 0, 59%, 41%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-brown: #A52A2A; $color-brown-rgb: 165, 42, 42; $color-brown-hsl: 0, 59%, 41%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'brown': '#A52A2A',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-brown: #A52A2A;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"brown": {
"value": "#A52A2A",
"type": "color",
"description": "Brown — #A52A2A"
}
}More brown colors
View all →What Does Brown Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Brown (#A52A2A) speaks the visual language of earth—the color of soil, wood, leather, and the raw materials of making. Brown-family tones project warmth through an ancient, universal association with the physical world: solid, reliable, and honestly crafted.
- Brown carries the associations of the earth, wood, leather, and the materials of pre-industrial life—a grounding quality that contemporary branding leverages for authenticity, craft, and natural origin. Its associations with coffee, chocolate, and wood make it an instinctive choice for artisanal food and lifestyle brands.
- Across Asian cultures, brown tones—particularly warm earthy reds and ochres—appear extensively in traditional architecture, ceramics, and clothing. Earth tones are universally associated with stability and natural order, and brown occupies this role across most of the world's cultural traditions.
- Brown's medium lightness (41%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity at its most direct.
- At 59% saturation, Brown reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity zone with measured confidence.
The brands that use Brown well are the ones that understand that authenticity can't be faked—it can only be matched by colors that embody it.
How to Use Brown in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
Brands reaching for authenticity and craft frequently choose Brown over other options precisely because it doesn't try to be clever. It simply is what it is—warm, honest, and materially grounded.
- UI components: warm accent colors, earthy neutral backgrounds, natural brand accents—Brown performs reliably in all these roles with its medium tonal character.
- Brand & identity: coffee and chocolate brands, craft beer packaging, outdoor gear—contexts where Brown's moderately saturated quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Brown works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
- As a dark tone, Brown creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Proportional use: Brown's moderately saturated quality means it scales well across proportions—from full-bleed backgrounds to single-pixel borders—making it an unusually versatile palette component.
The brands that use Brown well are the ones that understand that authenticity can't be faked—it can only be matched by colors that embody it.
Brown Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Brown (#A52A2A) achieves a 7.08:1 contrast ratio with white text, surpassing the WCAG 2.1 AAA threshold of 7:1. This exceptional contrast qualifies it for body text, UI components at any size, and all accessibility-sensitive interface contexts. Relative luminance: 9.8%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 7.08:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 2.96:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Brown background: White (#FFFFFF) at 7.08:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 9.8% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Brown qualifies for all text sizes including small body copy (AAA).
- Color blindness consideration: protanopia and deuteranopia (red-green color blindness, ~8% of males) may affect how brown-family colors are distinguished from greens and browns. For critical UI states, supplement color alone with shape, label, or pattern cues.
For production use, test Brown against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Brown in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Brown (#A52A2A) is most at home in industries where earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity are key brand values. Its medium quality makes it particularly effective in Food & Beverage contexts, where the moderately saturated saturation signals reliability at exactly the right register.
- Food & Beverage: Brown's associations with coffee, chocolate, bread, and wood-fire cooking make it indispensable for food brands that want to project artisanal quality, warmth, and natural origin. The color does the work of suggesting handmade, slow-craft processes before a single word is read. (examples: Chipotle, Sweetgreen, Blue Bottle Coffee) Light browns work for dairy and bakery; dark browns for coffee, chocolate, and premium spirits.
- Outdoor & Lifestyle: Outdoor, hiking, and adventure brands use brown as an earth tone that grounds the product in natural environments. Combined with forest greens and slate grays, it creates a palette language of terrain, durability, and wilderness competence. (examples: REI, Patagonia, Arc'teryx) Brown leather and canvas associations make it particularly effective for gear, footwear, and heritage outdoor brands.
- Craft & Artisanal: The craft movement across food, beer, candles, and home goods has made brown its unofficial color—it signals hand-made, small-batch, locally-sourced, and premium-for-a-reason. Any product that wants to claim artisanal credentials benefits from earthy, brown-anchored packaging. Kraft paper brown in particular has become synonymous with sustainable, artisanal packaging.
- Brand positioning: Brown is best suited for brands projecting naturalness, warmth, reliability. Categories outside this positioning—technology products—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Brown works effectively in artisanal food, furniture and home goods, natural product labels—contexts where reliability serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
The industries where Brown performs best are those where the audience expects reliability. Build brand strategy around this alignment, not against it.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Brown? ▾
- The hex code for Brown is #A52A2A. Its RGB values are rgb(165, 42, 42) and its HSL values are hsl(0, 59%, 41%).
- What does Brown mean in design? ▾
- Brown is the color of soil, wood, leather, coffee, and chocolate — all things that develop richness through time and organic processes. It is the most grounded color, with no flashiness, no pretension. Brands that use brown often want to communicate that they are slow, intentional, and built to last.
- Is Brown WCAG accessible? ▾
- Brown (#A52A2A) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 7.08:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 71/100.
- What colors go well with Brown? ▾
- Brown pairs well with its complementary color Iron Gray (#595E5E). Analogous colors like Hot Pink and Burgundy also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Brown used for? ▾
- Brown is commonly used for: Coffee shops and specialty beverage brands; Chocolate and premium confectionery; Outdoor gear and hiking equipment; Furniture and home furnishing brands; Craft beer and artisanal food products.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Brown? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #A52A2A` or `background-color: #A52A2A`. The CSS custom property is `--color-brown: #A52A2A`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#A52A2A]` for backgrounds or `text-[#A52A2A]` for text.