Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Pink (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #FFC0CB
- RGB
- rgb(255, 192, 203)
- HSL
- hsl(350, 100%, 88%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.868 0.074 7)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 25%, 20%, 0%)
--color-pinkbg-[#FFC0CB]Accessibility
Score: 48/100On White (#FFF)
1.54:1
On Black (#000)
13.65:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
1.41:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #FFC0CB
color: #FFC0CB
bg-[#FFC0CB] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #FFC0CB
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Ocean Green
#4E9B8F
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Pink is the pastel form of red — sharing its associations with energy and love but removing the threat. Pure pink in the 1950s was coded as feminine through marketing, but contemporary design has reclaimed pink across gender expressions. In marketing, pink is used to signal fun, youth, and the intimate side of luxury.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where 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
Fails AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Check contrast
3:1 for non-text UI
Pink is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (13.65:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #FFC0CB;Text
color: #FFC0CB;Border
border: 2px solid #FFC0CB;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #FFC0CB40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #FFC0CB, #fff3fe);Tailwind-style
--color-pink: #FFC0CB;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Pink without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#FFC0CB]Text
text-[#FFC0CB]Border
border-[#FFC0CB]Ring
ring-[#FFC0CB]Fill
fill-[#FFC0CB]From (gradient)
from-[#FFC0CB]Via (gradient)
via-[#FFC0CB]To (gradient)
to-[#FFC0CB]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Pink design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-pink: #FFC0CB;
--color-pink-rgb: 255, 192, 203;
--color-pink-hsl: 350, 100%, 88%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-pink: #FFC0CB; $color-pink-rgb: 255, 192, 203; $color-pink-hsl: 350, 100%, 88%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'pink': '#FFC0CB',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-pink: #FFC0CB;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"pink": {
"value": "#FFC0CB",
"type": "color",
"description": "Pink — #FFC0CB"
}
}More pink colors
View all →What Does Pink Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
Pink occupies a sweet spot in the pink spectrum—pale enough to feel accessible, saturated enough (100%) to project playfulness with conviction. It's the version of pink that says something specific rather than defaulting to a category.
- Across color psychology research, pink consistently tests high for "joy" associations, making Pink a reliable vehicle for playfulness in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on pink-family tones to project creativity and confidence—values that Pink communicates in a pale key.
- At 100% saturation, Pink reads as vivid—Hot and neon pinks are among the most attention-demanding tones in design—used in fashion campaigns, music branding, and Gen-Z consumer culture to signal disruption and unapologetic self-expression.
- Pink's pale lightness (88%) 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 Pink well are the ones that understand what they're communicating beyond gender—warmth, creativity, and the willingness to be joyful.
How to Use Pink in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The art of using 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: Pink's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Pink's vivid saturation (100%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
- Pink creates strong legibility with black text overlays (13.7:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Typography: Pink as text requires a dark background; its 88% lightness means it provides 1.5:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
The brands that use Pink well are the ones that understand what they're communicating beyond gender—warmth, creativity, and the willingness to be joyful.
Pink Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Pink (#FFC0CB) achieves a 13.65:1 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: 63.3%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 1.54:1 — Fail
- As text on black (#000000): 13.65:1 — AAA ✓
- Best text color on Pink background: Black (#000000) at 13.65:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 63.3% — above-median luminance—it reads as a light to mid-tone background, compatible with dark text while retaining color personality
- Pink 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 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 Pink against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Pink in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Pink's brand positioning falls squarely in the territory of warmth, playfulness, optimism, and modern confidence. Industry data supports its strongest performance in beauty & fashion, food & confectionery, entertainment categories, where the vivid saturation calibrates the message at a pale, considered level.
- 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: 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, Pink works effectively in wellness apps, fashion campaigns, children's media—contexts where warmth serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Pink is a commitment to warmth, playfulness, optimism, and modern confidence. 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 Pink? ▾
- The hex code for Pink is #FFC0CB. Its RGB values are rgb(255, 192, 203) and its HSL values are hsl(350, 100%, 88%).
- What does Pink mean in design? ▾
- Pink is the pastel form of red — sharing its associations with energy and love but removing the threat. Pure pink in the 1950s was coded as feminine through marketing, but contemporary design has reclaimed pink across gender expressions. In marketing, pink is used to signal fun, youth, and the intimate side of luxury.
- Is Pink WCAG accessible? ▾
- Pink (#FFC0CB) does not pass WCAG AA on white (1.54:1 ratio). Use it on dark backgrounds where it achieves 13.65:1. Its overall accessibility score is 48/100.
- What colors go well with Pink? ▾
- Pink pairs well with its complementary color Ocean Green (#4E9B8F). Analogous colors like Rose Pink and Cotton Candy also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Pink used for? ▾
- 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 Pink? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #FFC0CB` or `background-color: #FFC0CB`. The CSS custom property is `--color-pink: #FFC0CB`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#FFC0CB]` for backgrounds or `text-[#FFC0CB]` for text.