Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Candy Pink (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #E4717A
- RGB
- rgb(228, 113, 122)
- HSL
- hsl(355, 68%, 67%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.685 0.143 17)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 50%, 46%, 11%)
--color-candy-pinkbg-[#E4717A]Accessibility
Score: 31/100On White (#FFF)
3.03:1
On Black (#000)
6.94:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
2.77:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #E4717A
color: #E4717A
bg-[#E4717A] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #E4717A
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Deep Teal
#004D47
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Pink is a tint of red with fundamentally different psychological properties. Where red signals danger, pink signals tenderness and safety. Pink creates calming effects — experiments show pink holding cells reduce aggressive behavior. In branding, hot pinks and magentas are energetic and attention-grabbing; blush pinks feel intimate and soft; dusty pinks convey a sophisticated, vintage femininity. Pink's gender coding (a 20th-century convention) has made it culturally complex — contemporary brands use pink to challenge norms as much as to reinforce them. In luxury markets, pink signals romance and intimacy rather than power. Its lighter value makes it approachable and soft — suitable for backgrounds, secondary UI states, and contexts requiring the hue's character without full intensity.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Candy Pink is applied in professional design.
- Beauty, cosmetics, and personal care
- Baby products and nursery design
- Romantic occasions and greeting cards
- Confectionery and dessert brands
- Fashion and lifestyle brands targeting millennial audiences
- Social media apps emphasizing intimacy
- Breast cancer awareness campaigns
- Toy brands and children's entertainment
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Fails 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
Candy Pink is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (6.94:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #E4717A;Text
color: #E4717A;Border
border: 2px solid #E4717A;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #E4717A40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #E4717A, #ffa2a9);Tailwind-style
--color-candy-pink: #E4717A;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Candy Pink without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#E4717A]Text
text-[#E4717A]Border
border-[#E4717A]Ring
ring-[#E4717A]Fill
fill-[#E4717A]From (gradient)
from-[#E4717A]Via (gradient)
via-[#E4717A]To (gradient)
to-[#E4717A]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Candy Pink design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-candy-pink: #E4717A;
--color-candy-pink-rgb: 228, 113, 122;
--color-candy-pink-hsl: 355, 68%, 67%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-candy-pink: #E4717A; $color-candy-pink-rgb: 228, 113, 122; $color-candy-pink-hsl: 355, 68%, 67%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'candy-pink': '#E4717A',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-candy-pink: #E4717A;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"candy-pink": {
"value": "#E4717A",
"type": "color",
"description": "Candy Pink — #E4717A"
}
}More pink colors
View all →What Does Candy Pink Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
The contemporary psychology of pink is more complex than its reputation suggests. Candy Pink (#E4717A) carries the family's warmth and approachability while mid-tone character positions it as confidence: not naïve softness, but intentional, emotionally confident design.
- Across color psychology research, pink consistently tests high for "joy" associations, making Candy Pink a reliable vehicle for confidence in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on pink-family tones to project creativity and confidence—values that Candy Pink communicates in a mid-tone key.
- At 68% saturation, Candy Pink reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the warmth, playfulness, optimism, and modern confidence zone with measured confidence.
- Candy Pink's mid-tone lightness (67%) shifts its psychological register: Pale and blush pinks have a quiet elegance—used in weddings, luxury beauty, and minimal lifestyle brands for their soft romance without sentimentality.
The brands that use Candy Pink well are the ones that understand what they're communicating beyond gender—warmth, creativity, and the willingness to be joyful.
How to Use Candy Pink in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The art of using Candy Pink effectively is understanding which conversation you're joining. Soft and blush, or bold and confident—the same hue family communicates very differently at different saturations and lightnesses.
- Avoid: industries requiring seriousness or authority (finance, legal, government) unless used as a calculated subversion, and technology products targeting broad professional audiences without a specific cultural reason.
- Color harmonies: Candy Pink's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Candy Pink's moderately saturated saturation (68%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
- Candy Pink creates strong legibility with black text overlays (6.9:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Candy Pink as text requires a dark background; its 67% lightness means it provides 3.0:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
The brands that use Candy Pink well are the ones that understand what they're communicating beyond gender—warmth, creativity, and the willingness to be joyful.
Candy Pink Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Candy Pink (#E4717A) reaches 6.94:1 contrast with black text—meeting WCAG 2.1 AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. It clears standard production accessibility requirements. Relative luminance: 29.7%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 3.03:1 — AA (large text only)
- As text on black (#000000): 6.94:1 — AA ✓
- Best text color on Candy Pink background: Black (#000000) at 6.94:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 29.7% — mid-range luminance—it sits in the transition zone where both dark and light text approaches require testing against the 4.5:1 WCAG threshold
- Candy Pink qualifies for normal body text and all larger sizes (AA).
- Color blindness consideration: protanopia and deuteranopia (red-green color blindness, ~8% of males) may affect how pink-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 Candy Pink against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Candy Pink in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Candy Pink (#E4717A) is most at home in industries where warmth, playfulness, optimism, and modern confidence are key brand values. Its mid-tone quality makes it particularly effective in Beauty & Personal Care contexts, where the moderately saturated saturation signals warmth at exactly the right register.
- Beauty & Personal Care: Pink remains a dominant force in beauty despite its expanded semantic range. It signals femininity, self-care, and the small luxuries of personal grooming—and it works across the tonal range from bold fuchsia packaging to soft blush product photography. Gender-neutral beauty brands increasingly use specific pink tones (dusty rose, millennial pink) to retain warmth while avoiding overtly gendered associations.
- Food & Confectionery: Pink signals sweetness, freshness, and delight in food contexts. Dessert brands, bakeries, and confectioneries use it to trigger sweet-taste associations and create an atmosphere of celebratory indulgence. Particularly effective for Valentine's Day, birthday, and celebration-focused food products.
- Fashion & Lifestyle: Fashion's relationship with pink is dynamic—it cycles between softness and statement power depending on cultural moment. Currently, fashion uses pink most boldly as a color of confidence, irony, and self-aware femininity. Bold fuchsia and hot pink are more culturally resonant in fashion right now than blush; the trend trajectory matters as much as the hue.
- Brand positioning: Candy Pink is best suited for brands projecting creativity, confidence, warmth. Categories outside this positioning—industries requiring seriousness or authority (finance—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Candy Pink works effectively in wellness apps, fashion campaigns, children's media—contexts where warmth serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
The industries where Candy Pink performs best are those where the audience expects warmth. Build brand strategy around this alignment, not against it.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Candy Pink? ▾
- The hex code for Candy Pink is #E4717A. Its RGB values are rgb(228, 113, 122) and its HSL values are hsl(355, 68%, 67%).
- What does Candy Pink mean in design? ▾
- Pink is a tint of red with fundamentally different psychological properties. Where red signals danger, pink signals tenderness and safety. Pink creates calming effects — experiments show pink holding cells reduce aggressive behavior. In branding, hot pinks and magentas are energetic and attention-grabbing; blush pinks feel intimate and soft; dusty pinks convey a sophisticated, vintage femininity. Pink's gender coding (a 20th-century convention) has made it culturally complex — contemporary brands use pink to challenge norms as much as to reinforce them. In luxury markets, pink signals romance and intimacy rather than power. Its lighter value makes it approachable and soft — suitable for backgrounds, secondary UI states, and contexts requiring the hue's character without full intensity.
- Is Candy Pink WCAG accessible? ▾
- Candy Pink (#E4717A) passes WCAG AA-large on white with a 3.03:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 31/100.
- What colors go well with Candy Pink? ▾
- Candy Pink pairs well with its complementary color Deep Teal (#004D47). Analogous colors like Imperial Purple and Pale Violet Red also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Candy Pink used for? ▾
- Candy Pink is commonly used for: Beauty, cosmetics, and personal care; Baby products and nursery design; Romantic occasions and greeting cards; Confectionery and dessert brands; Fashion and lifestyle brands targeting millennial audiences.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Candy Pink? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #E4717A` or `background-color: #E4717A`. The CSS custom property is `--color-candy-pink: #E4717A`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#E4717A]` for backgrounds or `text-[#E4717A]` for text.