Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Maroon (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #800000
- RGB
- rgb(128, 0, 0)
- HSL
- hsl(0, 100%, 25%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.377 0.155 29)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 100%, 100%, 50%)
--color-maroonbg-[#800000]Accessibility
Score: 96/100On White (#FFF)
10.95:1
On Black (#000)
1.92:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
10.04:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #800000
color: #800000
bg-[#800000] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #800000
Color Harmonies
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Maroon is the restrained, academic sibling of red. Its brownish undertones give it an institutional weight used by scores of universities and traditional sports clubs. Where red shouts, maroon whispers authority. It pairs exceptionally well with gold and cream.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Maroon is applied in professional design.
- Emergency alerts and warning systems
- Food and beverage brands (appetite stimulation)
- Sports teams and athletic wear
- Calls-to-action and "Buy Now" buttons
- Pharmaceutical packaging for urgent medications
- Entertainment and gaming brands
- Automotive brands emphasizing power and performance
- Retail sale and clearance signage
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
Maroon is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (10.95:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #800000;Text
color: #800000;Border
border: 2px solid #800000;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #80000040;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #800000, #b73d2a);Tailwind-style
--color-maroon: #800000;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Maroon without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#800000]Text
text-[#800000]Border
border-[#800000]Ring
ring-[#800000]Fill
fill-[#800000]From (gradient)
from-[#800000]Via (gradient)
via-[#800000]To (gradient)
to-[#800000]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Maroon design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-maroon: #800000;
--color-maroon-rgb: 128, 0, 0;
--color-maroon-hsl: 0, 100%, 25%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-maroon: #800000; $color-maroon-rgb: 128, 0, 0; $color-maroon-hsl: 0, 100%, 25%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'maroon': '#800000',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-maroon: #800000;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"maroon": {
"value": "#800000",
"type": "color",
"description": "Maroon — #800000"
}
}Related Palettes & Combinations
Color Combinations
Accessible Color Pairs
More red colors
View all →What Does Maroon Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Few colors carry as much cross-cultural psychological weight as the red family. Maroon channels this heritage—landing in the design spectrum as power, a quality equally present in a "Buy Now" button and a luxury fashion house's logo.
- Across color psychology research, red consistently tests high for "energy" associations, making Maroon a reliable vehicle for power in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on red-family tones to project excitement and urgency—values that Maroon communicates in a deep key.
- At 100% saturation, Maroon reads as vivid—Pure saturated reds are physiologically stimulating, triggering faster heart rate and heightened alertness—among the most attention-commanding tones in human visual perception.
- Maroon's deep lightness (25%) shifts its psychological register: Deep crimsons and burgundies shift urgency toward sophistication, authority, and depth—better for premium positioning than quick-reaction signals.
For designers, Maroon is a precision instrument: powerful in small doses, overwhelming at scale. Restraint is its best amplifier.
How to Use Maroon in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
In digital interfaces, Maroon functions as a high-attention accent rather than a dominant tone. Even at small proportions, its vivid saturation (100%) carries enough visual weight to direct the eye precisely where needed.
- Avoid: financial dashboards (loss association), environmental brands (conflicts with green identity), and medical UIs where red exclusively signals critical alerts.
- Color harmonies: Maroon's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Maroon's vivid saturation (100%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
- As a dark tone, Maroon creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Typography: Maroon works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
For designers, Maroon is a precision instrument: powerful in small doses, overwhelming at scale. Restraint is its best amplifier.
Maroon Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Maroon (#800000) achieves a 10.95:1 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: 4.6%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 10.95:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 1.92:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Maroon background: White (#FFFFFF) at 10.95:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 4.6% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Maroon 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 red-family colors are distinguished from greens and browns. For critical UI states, supplement color alone with shape, label, or pattern cues.
Always verify Maroon at its final intended size and weight using a real contrast checker—font weight and rendering environment affect perceived legibility beyond what raw ratios capture.
Maroon in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Maroon's brand positioning falls squarely in the territory of energy, passion, urgency, and power. Industry data supports its strongest performance in food & beverage, retail, entertainment categories, where the vivid saturation calibrates the message at a deep, considered level.
- Food & Beverage: Red stimulates appetite and accelerates purchase decisions. Fast food chains, hot sauce brands, and snack packaging use it deliberately because it increases caloric craving and speeds up decision-making at point of sale. (examples: Chipotle, Sweetgreen, Blue Bottle Coffee) Avoid in fine dining or health-food contexts where a slower, more mindful experience is the goal.
- Retail & E-commerce: The "red sale tag" is a globally conditioned retail convention. Red signals scarcity and urgency, making it the universal shorthand for clearance events, limited-time offers, and price callouts. (examples: Shopify merchant sites, ASOS, H&M) Overuse exhausts the urgency signal—reserve it for genuinely time-limited promotions.
- Sports & Entertainment: Red communicates competition, athletic energy, and tribal passion. From team jerseys to arena signage, it energizes crowds and aligns with the visceral intensity sports brands want to project. (examples: Disney+, Hulu, Netflix) Works best paired with black or white for maximum contrast and visual impact.
- Brand positioning: Maroon is best suited for brands projecting energy, passion, importance. Categories outside this positioning—financial dashboards (loss association)—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Maroon works effectively in call-to-action buttons, promotional banners, food packaging—contexts where passion serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Maroon is a commitment to energy, passion, urgency, and power. Match it with industries that make that promise and it will pay dividends consistently.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Maroon? ▾
- The hex code for Maroon is #800000. Its RGB values are rgb(128, 0, 0) and its HSL values are hsl(0, 100%, 25%).
- What does Maroon mean in design? ▾
- Maroon is the restrained, academic sibling of red. Its brownish undertones give it an institutional weight used by scores of universities and traditional sports clubs. Where red shouts, maroon whispers authority. It pairs exceptionally well with gold and cream.
- Is Maroon WCAG accessible? ▾
- Maroon (#800000) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 10.95:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 96/100.
- What colors go well with Maroon? ▾
- Maroon 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 Maroon used for? ▾
- Maroon is commonly used for: Emergency alerts and warning systems; Food and beverage brands (appetite stimulation); Sports teams and athletic wear; Calls-to-action and "Buy Now" buttons; Pharmaceutical packaging for urgent medications.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Maroon? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #800000` or `background-color: #800000`. The CSS custom property is `--color-maroon: #800000`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#800000]` for backgrounds or `text-[#800000]` for text.