Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Cinnamon (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #D2691E
- RGB
- rgb(210, 105, 30)
- HSL
- hsl(25, 75%, 47%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.634 0.155 50)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 50%, 86%, 18%)
--color-cinnamonbg-[#D2691E]Accessibility
Score: 39/100On White (#FFF)
3.63:1
On Black (#000)
5.78:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
3.33:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #D2691E
color: #D2691E
bg-[#D2691E] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #D2691E
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Maya Blue
#73C2FB
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Brown is the color of earth, wood, and food — the most organic color in the spectrum. It conveys honesty, dependability, and unpretentiousness. Unlike the engineered precision of black, brown's warmth feels handmade and authentic. Coffee culture has made brown aspirational in ways it never was in the 20th century; the smell and warmth of a coffee shop is inseparable from its brown palette. Darker, richer browns signal luxury craft — leather, walnut, dark chocolate. Lighter sandy browns feel outdoor, regional, and approachable. Brown's weakness is its association with dirt and decay in medical contexts, where it is largely avoided. At medium lightness, it is the most versatile tone of this hue family — readable as text on light backgrounds, yet vibrant enough as a visual accent.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Cinnamon 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
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
Cinnamon is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (5.78:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #D2691E;Text
color: #D2691E;Border
border: 2px solid #D2691E;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #D2691E40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #D2691E, #ff984d);Tailwind-style
--color-cinnamon: #D2691E;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Cinnamon without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#D2691E]Text
text-[#D2691E]Border
border-[#D2691E]Ring
ring-[#D2691E]Fill
fill-[#D2691E]From (gradient)
from-[#D2691E]Via (gradient)
via-[#D2691E]To (gradient)
to-[#D2691E]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Cinnamon design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-cinnamon: #D2691E;
--color-cinnamon-rgb: 210, 105, 30;
--color-cinnamon-hsl: 25, 75%, 47%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-cinnamon: #D2691E; $color-cinnamon-rgb: 210, 105, 30; $color-cinnamon-hsl: 25, 75%, 47%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'cinnamon': '#D2691E',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-cinnamon: #D2691E;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"cinnamon": {
"value": "#D2691E",
"type": "color",
"description": "Cinnamon — #D2691E"
}
}More brown colors
View all →What Does Cinnamon Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Cinnamon at #D2691E carries the heritage of the materials that shaped human civilization: earth, wood, leather, stone, coffee, chocolate. This material memory translates directly as authenticity—an instinctive trust in things that feel honestly made.
- Across color psychology research, brown consistently tests high for "authenticity" associations, making Cinnamon a reliable vehicle for authenticity in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on brown-family tones to project naturalness and warmth—values that Cinnamon communicates in a medium key.
- At 75% saturation, Cinnamon reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity zone with measured confidence.
- Cinnamon's medium lightness (47%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity at its most direct.
In a world of loud design, Cinnamon is a deliberate quietness. It says: this is real.
How to Use Cinnamon in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
In digital design, Cinnamon adds textural warmth that screens often lack. It fights the flat, cold quality of purely digital palettes and brings a human, analog quality to interfaces.
- Avoid: technology products, clinical healthcare, and anything that needs to project cleanliness or digital precision.
- Color harmonies: Cinnamon's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Cinnamon's moderately saturated saturation (75%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
- Cinnamon creates strong legibility with black text overlays (5.8:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Cinnamon as text requires a dark background; its 47% lightness means it provides 3.6:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
In a world of loud design, Cinnamon is a deliberate quietness. It says: this is real.
Cinnamon Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Cinnamon (#D2691E) reaches 5.78:1 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: 23.9%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 3.63:1 — AA (large text only)
- As text on black (#000000): 5.78:1 — AA ✓
- Best text color on Cinnamon background: Black (#000000) at 5.78:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 23.9% — 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
- Cinnamon 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 brown-family colors are distinguished from greens and browns. For critical UI states, supplement color alone with shape, label, or pattern cues.
Cinnamon's WCAG profile makes it a compliant choice for most text applications.
Cinnamon in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Across industry research, brown-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. Cinnamon is a medium expression of this advantage—best positioned in Food & Beverage and adjacent markets.
- 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: Cinnamon is best suited for brands projecting authenticity, craftsmanship, reliability. Categories outside this positioning—technology products—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Cinnamon works effectively in coffee and chocolate brands, craft beer packaging, outdoor gear—contexts where earthiness serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
Cinnamon earns its strongest ROI in industries where trust and recognition compound over time: Food & Beverage, Outdoor & Lifestyle, Craft & Artisanal. Use it to build the kind of brand recognition that decades reinforce.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Cinnamon? ▾
- The hex code for Cinnamon is #D2691E. Its RGB values are rgb(210, 105, 30) and its HSL values are hsl(25, 75%, 47%).
- What does Cinnamon mean in design? ▾
- Brown is the color of earth, wood, and food — the most organic color in the spectrum. It conveys honesty, dependability, and unpretentiousness. Unlike the engineered precision of black, brown's warmth feels handmade and authentic. Coffee culture has made brown aspirational in ways it never was in the 20th century; the smell and warmth of a coffee shop is inseparable from its brown palette. Darker, richer browns signal luxury craft — leather, walnut, dark chocolate. Lighter sandy browns feel outdoor, regional, and approachable. Brown's weakness is its association with dirt and decay in medical contexts, where it is largely avoided. At medium lightness, it is the most versatile tone of this hue family — readable as text on light backgrounds, yet vibrant enough as a visual accent.
- Is Cinnamon WCAG accessible? ▾
- Cinnamon (#D2691E) passes WCAG AA-large on white with a 3.63:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 39/100.
- What colors go well with Cinnamon? ▾
- Cinnamon pairs well with its complementary color Maya Blue (#73C2FB). Analogous colors like Lava Red and Chestnut also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Cinnamon used for? ▾
- Cinnamon 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 Cinnamon? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #D2691E` or `background-color: #D2691E`. The CSS custom property is `--color-cinnamon: #D2691E`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#D2691E]` for backgrounds or `text-[#D2691E]` for text.