Tints & Shades
50
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Scale from white (50) through Raw Sienna (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #CB8442
- RGB
- rgb(203, 132, 66)
- HSL
- hsl(29, 57%, 53%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.674 0.12 61)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 35%, 67%, 20%)
--color-raw-siennabg-[#CB8442]Accessibility
Score: 31/100On White (#FFF)
3.04:1
On Black (#000)
6.92:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
2.78:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #CB8442
color: #CB8442
bg-[#CB8442] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #CB8442
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Dodger Blue
#1E90FF
Split-Complementary
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 Raw Sienna 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
Raw Sienna is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (6.92:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #CB8442;Text
color: #CB8442;Border
border: 2px solid #CB8442;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #CB844240;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #CB8442, #ffb46f);Tailwind-style
--color-raw-sienna: #CB8442;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Raw Sienna without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#CB8442]Text
text-[#CB8442]Border
border-[#CB8442]Ring
ring-[#CB8442]Fill
fill-[#CB8442]From (gradient)
from-[#CB8442]Via (gradient)
via-[#CB8442]To (gradient)
to-[#CB8442]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Raw Sienna design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-raw-sienna: #CB8442;
--color-raw-sienna-rgb: 203, 132, 66;
--color-raw-sienna-hsl: 29, 57%, 53%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-raw-sienna: #CB8442; $color-raw-sienna-rgb: 203, 132, 66; $color-raw-sienna-hsl: 29, 57%, 53%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'raw-sienna': '#CB8442',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-raw-sienna: #CB8442;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"raw-sienna": {
"value": "#CB8442",
"type": "color",
"description": "Raw Sienna — #CB8442"
}
}More brown colors
View all →What Does Raw Sienna 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. Raw Sienna's medium quality makes stability its natural register.
- Brown carries the associations of the earth, wood, leather, and the materials of pre-industrial life—a grounding quality that contemporary branding leverages for authenticity, craft, and natural origin. Its associations with coffee, chocolate, and wood make it an instinctive choice for artisanal food and lifestyle brands.
- Across Asian cultures, brown tones—particularly warm earthy reds and ochres—appear extensively in traditional architecture, ceramics, and clothing. Earth tones are universally associated with stability and natural order, and brown occupies this role across most of the world's cultural traditions.
- Raw Sienna's medium lightness (53%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity at its most direct.
- At 57% saturation, Raw Sienna reads as moderately saturated—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity zone with measured confidence.
The brands that use Raw Sienna well are the ones that understand that authenticity can't be faked—it can only be matched by colors that embody it.
How to Use Raw Sienna in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
Brands reaching for authenticity and craft frequently choose Raw Sienna over other options precisely because it doesn't try to be clever. It simply is what it is—warm, honest, and materially grounded.
- UI components: warm accent colors, earthy neutral backgrounds, natural brand accents—Raw Sienna performs reliably in all these roles with its medium tonal character.
- Brand & identity: coffee and chocolate brands, craft beer packaging, outdoor gear—contexts where Raw Sienna's moderately saturated quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Raw Sienna as text requires a dark background; its 53% lightness means it provides 3.0:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
- Raw Sienna creates strong legibility with black text overlays (6.9:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Proportional use: Raw Sienna'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.
The brands that use Raw Sienna well are the ones that understand that authenticity can't be faked—it can only be matched by colors that embody it.
Raw Sienna Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Raw Sienna (#CB8442) reaches 6.92:1 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: 29.6%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 3.04:1 — AA (large text only)
- As text on black (#000000): 6.92:1 — AA ✓
- Best text color on Raw Sienna background: Black (#000000) at 6.92:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 29.6% — 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
- Raw Sienna 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.
For production use, test Raw Sienna against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Raw Sienna in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Raw Sienna's brand positioning falls squarely in the territory of earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. Industry data supports its strongest performance in food & beverage, outdoor & lifestyle, coffee categories, where the moderately saturated saturation calibrates the message at a medium, considered level.
- 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: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, 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: Raw Sienna is best suited for brands projecting naturalness, warmth, reliability. Categories outside this positioning—technology products—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Raw Sienna works effectively in artisanal food, furniture and home goods, natural product labels—contexts where earthiness serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Raw Sienna is a commitment to earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. 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 Raw Sienna? ▾
- The hex code for Raw Sienna is #CB8442. Its RGB values are rgb(203, 132, 66) and its HSL values are hsl(29, 57%, 53%).
- What does Raw Sienna 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 Raw Sienna WCAG accessible? ▾
- Raw Sienna (#CB8442) passes WCAG AA-large on white with a 3.04:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 31/100.
- What colors go well with Raw Sienna? ▾
- Raw Sienna pairs well with its complementary color Dodger Blue (#1E90FF). Analogous colors like Red and Burnt Sienna also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Raw Sienna used for? ▾
- Raw Sienna 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 Raw Sienna? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #CB8442` or `background-color: #CB8442`. The CSS custom property is `--color-raw-sienna: #CB8442`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#CB8442]` for backgrounds or `text-[#CB8442]` for text.