Tints & Shades
50
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Scale from white (50) through Peru (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #CD853F
- RGB
- rgb(205, 133, 63)
- HSL
- hsl(30, 59%, 53%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.678 0.123 62)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 35%, 69%, 20%)
--color-perubg-[#CD853F]Accessibility
Score: 48/100On White (#FFF)
2.99:1
On Black (#000)
7.02:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
2.74:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #CD853F
color: #CD853F
bg-[#CD853F] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #CD853F
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Dodger Blue
#1E90FF
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 Peru 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
Fails AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Check contrast
3:1 for non-text UI
Peru is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (7.02:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #CD853F;Text
color: #CD853F;Border
border: 2px solid #CD853F;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #CD853F40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #CD853F, #ffb56c);Tailwind-style
--color-peru: #CD853F;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Peru without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#CD853F]Text
text-[#CD853F]Border
border-[#CD853F]Ring
ring-[#CD853F]Fill
fill-[#CD853F]From (gradient)
from-[#CD853F]Via (gradient)
via-[#CD853F]To (gradient)
to-[#CD853F]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Peru design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-peru: #CD853F;
--color-peru-rgb: 205, 133, 63;
--color-peru-hsl: 30, 59%, 53%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-peru: #CD853F; $color-peru-rgb: 205, 133, 63; $color-peru-hsl: 30, 59%, 53%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'peru': '#CD853F',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-peru: #CD853F;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"peru": {
"value": "#CD853F",
"type": "color",
"description": "Peru — #CD853F"
}
}More brown colors
View all →What Does Peru Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Color psychology research consistently places brown as the most "trustworthy" of the warm tones—not because it demands attention like red or commands authority like navy, but because it simply asks to be believed. Peru's medium quality makes stability its natural register.
- Across color psychology research, brown consistently tests high for "authenticity" associations, making Peru a reliable vehicle for stability in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on brown-family tones to project naturalness and warmth—values that Peru communicates in a medium key.
- At 59% saturation, Peru reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity zone with measured confidence.
- Peru's medium lightness (53%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity at its most direct.
Peru asks for trust without performance—and that quiet confidence is its greatest design asset.
How to Use Peru in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
Peru is one of design's most underused versatile tones. It works as a neutral, an accent, a dominant brand color, and a sophisticated alternative to black—and it brings a warmth to palettes that no other color family delivers.
- Avoid: technology products, clinical healthcare, and anything that needs to project cleanliness or digital precision.
- Color harmonies: Peru's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Peru'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.
- Peru creates strong legibility with black text overlays (7.0:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Peru as text requires a dark background; its 53% lightness means it provides 3.0:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
Peru asks for trust without performance—and that quiet confidence is its greatest design asset.
Peru Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Peru (#CD853F) achieves a 7.02:1 contrast ratio with black 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: 30.1%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 2.99:1 — Fail
- As text on black (#000000): 7.02:1 — AAA ✓
- Best text color on Peru background: Black (#000000) at 7.02:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 30.1% — 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
- Peru 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.
Always verify Peru 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.
Peru in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Across industry research, brown-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. Peru 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: Yeti, Arc'teryx, Patagonia) 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: Peru 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, Peru works effectively in coffee and chocolate brands, craft beer packaging, outdoor gear—contexts where earthiness serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
Peru 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 Peru? ▾
- The hex code for Peru is #CD853F. Its RGB values are rgb(205, 133, 63) and its HSL values are hsl(30, 59%, 53%).
- What does Peru 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 Peru WCAG accessible? ▾
- Peru (#CD853F) does not pass WCAG AA on white (2.99:1 ratio). Use it on dark backgrounds where it achieves 7.02:1. Its overall accessibility score is 48/100.
- What colors go well with Peru? ▾
- Peru pairs well with its complementary color Dodger Blue (#1E90FF). Analogous colors like Red and Deep Orange also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Peru used for? ▾
- Peru 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 Peru? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #CD853F` or `background-color: #CD853F`. The CSS custom property is `--color-peru: #CD853F`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#CD853F]` for backgrounds or `text-[#CD853F]` for text.