Gray and Orange color palette
dimgray · 0.038
coral · 0.042
The orange is much lighter than the gray, but their lightness gap is smaller than you might expect, which is why this pairing reads as warm accent on cool base rather than a hard . Gray #6B7280 has a faint cool tilt, and orange #F97316 brings the heat without clashing. Their measured contrast is only 1.72 to 1, so you should never set one as text on the other.
This is a classic web and app UI combination. Use the gray for body text, borders, secondary buttons, and chrome. Use the orange for primary actions, links, badges, and anything that needs to be noticed. Both ship as default Tailwind ramps, so the 50-900 scales give you tints for backgrounds and deeper shades for hover states out of the box.
If you blend them, you land near a muted brown (#B4785F), which works well as a tertiary accent or for warm illustration fills.
See Gray and Orange in use
better
Gray Tailwind scale (50-900)
Orange Tailwind scale (50-900)
Gray to Orange blend
A continuous interpolation from Gray to Orange, sampled into the 10 steps below. Tap any swatch to copy its hex.
Why Gray and Orange blend best in OKLab
The same two colors blended three ways. This site uses OKLab, which keeps the blend smooth and evenly lit. The other two are shown so you can see what to avoid: sRGB darkens and muddies the middle, and HSL detours through colors that are not in your palette.
Accessibility
Do not place Gray text on Orange (or the reverse) for body copy. For readable text, pair a dark scale step such as gray-800 or orange-900 with a light one like orange-50.
Contrast pairing grid
Rows are Gray steps, columns are Orange steps. Each mark is a Gray step shown on a Orange step: a check means it clears WCAG AA for text (4.5:1). If you can read the mark, the pairing is legible.
| 50 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 100 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 200 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 300 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 400 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 500 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 600 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 700 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 800 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 900 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
✓ passes AA ✗ fails AA
Copy for Tailwind
Tailwind v4 — @theme (paste into your CSS)
@theme {
--color-gray-50: #F6F6F7;
--color-gray-100: #ECEDEF;
--color-gray-200: #DDDEE2;
--color-gray-300: #C7CAD0;
--color-gray-400: #ABAFB7;
--color-gray-500: #6B7280;
--color-gray-600: #565C68;
--color-gray-700: #3F444D;
--color-gray-800: #22252B;
--color-gray-900: #0B0C0F;
--color-orange-50: #FFF7F3;
--color-orange-100: #FFEFE7;
--color-orange-200: #FFE2D2;
--color-orange-300: #FFCFB6;
--color-orange-400: #FFB58F;
--color-orange-500: #F97316;
--color-orange-600: #CC5D10;
--color-orange-700: #9A4509;
--color-orange-800: #5B2603;
--color-orange-900: #280C01;
}
Tailwind v3 — tailwind.config.js
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'gray': {
50: '#F6F6F7',
100: '#ECEDEF',
200: '#DDDEE2',
300: '#C7CAD0',
400: '#ABAFB7',
500: '#6B7280',
600: '#565C68',
700: '#3F444D',
800: '#22252B',
900: '#0B0C0F',
},
'orange': {
50: '#FFF7F3',
100: '#FFEFE7',
200: '#FFE2D2',
300: '#FFCFB6',
400: '#FFB58F',
500: '#F97316',
600: '#CC5D10',
700: '#9A4509',
800: '#5B2603',
900: '#280C01',
},
},
},
},
};
CSS variables
:root {
--gray-50: #F6F6F7;
--gray-100: #ECEDEF;
--gray-200: #DDDEE2;
--gray-300: #C7CAD0;
--gray-400: #ABAFB7;
--gray-500: #6B7280;
--gray-600: #565C68;
--gray-700: #3F444D;
--gray-800: #22252B;
--gray-900: #0B0C0F;
--orange-50: #FFF7F3;
--orange-100: #FFEFE7;
--orange-200: #FFE2D2;
--orange-300: #FFCFB6;
--orange-400: #FFB58F;
--orange-500: #F97316;
--orange-600: #CC5D10;
--orange-700: #9A4509;
--orange-800: #5B2603;
--orange-900: #280C01;
}SCSS variables
$gray-50: #F6F6F7; $gray-100: #ECEDEF; $gray-200: #DDDEE2; $gray-300: #C7CAD0; $gray-400: #ABAFB7; $gray-500: #6B7280; $gray-600: #565C68; $gray-700: #3F444D; $gray-800: #22252B; $gray-900: #0B0C0F; $orange-50: #FFF7F3; $orange-100: #FFEFE7; $orange-200: #FFE2D2; $orange-300: #FFCFB6; $orange-400: #FFB58F; $orange-500: #F97316; $orange-600: #CC5D10; $orange-700: #9A4509; $orange-800: #5B2603; $orange-900: #280C01;
JSON tokens
{
"gray": {
"50": "#F6F6F7",
"100": "#ECEDEF",
"200": "#DDDEE2",
"300": "#C7CAD0",
"400": "#ABAFB7",
"500": "#6B7280",
"600": "#565C68",
"700": "#3F444D",
"800": "#22252B",
"900": "#0B0C0F"
},
"orange": {
"50": "#FFF7F3",
"100": "#FFEFE7",
"200": "#FFE2D2",
"300": "#FFCFB6",
"400": "#FFB58F",
"500": "#F97316",
"600": "#CC5D10",
"700": "#9A4509",
"800": "#5B2603",
"900": "#280C01"
}
}How we name colors
There is no single official authority for naming colors. We use the common, widely recognized name as the primary label for each color (here, Gray and Orange); many common names are themselves W3C CSS named colors. For transparency we also show the nearest W3C CSS named color and the perceptual distance, ΔE, measured in OKLab. A small ΔE means the name is essentially exact; a larger one means it is the closest standard name rather than a perfect match.
Sources: W3C CSS Color Module Level 4 and the open color-name-list dataset, used to verify every color sits near a recognized name.