Red and Gold color palette
goldenrod · 0.025
There's a ceremonial feel to this pairing, like festival banners, holiday packaging, or the trim on something expensive. Red (#EF4444) is warm and loud. Gold (#D4AF37) has the metallic, slightly antique quality of medals and old book covers.
The two sit only 66 degrees apart at similar mid lightness, so measures just 1.79 to 1. They blend toward a warm orange (#E58140) at the midpoint, which keeps the combination rich rather than jarring. For branding and posters this works as a mood, but text needs a darker color or a white background. Use the 700-900 steps for type and the lighter steps as fills.
See Red and Gold in use
better
Red Tailwind scale (50-900)
Gold Tailwind scale (50-900)
Red to Gold blend
A continuous interpolation from Red to Gold, sampled into the 10 steps below. Tap any swatch to copy its hex.
Why Red and Gold 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 Red text on Gold (or the reverse) for body copy. For readable text, pair a dark scale step such as red-800 or gold-900 with a light one like gold-50.
Contrast pairing grid
Rows are Red steps, columns are Gold steps. Each mark is a Red step shown on a Gold 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-red-50: #FFF5F4;
--color-red-100: #FFEBE8;
--color-red-200: #FFDAD5;
--color-red-300: #FFC2BB;
--color-red-400: #FFA098;
--color-red-500: #EF4444;
--color-red-600: #C43636;
--color-red-700: #942626;
--color-red-800: #571313;
--color-red-900: #260404;
--color-gold-50: #FCFAF4;
--color-gold-100: #FAF6E9;
--color-gold-200: #F6EED8;
--color-gold-300: #EFE3BE;
--color-gold-400: #E7D49B;
--color-gold-500: #D4AF37;
--color-gold-600: #AD8F2B;
--color-gold-700: #836B1E;
--color-gold-800: #4C3D0E;
--color-gold-900: #201803;
}
Tailwind v3 — tailwind.config.js
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'red': {
50: '#FFF5F4',
100: '#FFEBE8',
200: '#FFDAD5',
300: '#FFC2BB',
400: '#FFA098',
500: '#EF4444',
600: '#C43636',
700: '#942626',
800: '#571313',
900: '#260404',
},
'gold': {
50: '#FCFAF4',
100: '#FAF6E9',
200: '#F6EED8',
300: '#EFE3BE',
400: '#E7D49B',
500: '#D4AF37',
600: '#AD8F2B',
700: '#836B1E',
800: '#4C3D0E',
900: '#201803',
},
},
},
},
};
CSS variables
:root {
--red-50: #FFF5F4;
--red-100: #FFEBE8;
--red-200: #FFDAD5;
--red-300: #FFC2BB;
--red-400: #FFA098;
--red-500: #EF4444;
--red-600: #C43636;
--red-700: #942626;
--red-800: #571313;
--red-900: #260404;
--gold-50: #FCFAF4;
--gold-100: #FAF6E9;
--gold-200: #F6EED8;
--gold-300: #EFE3BE;
--gold-400: #E7D49B;
--gold-500: #D4AF37;
--gold-600: #AD8F2B;
--gold-700: #836B1E;
--gold-800: #4C3D0E;
--gold-900: #201803;
}SCSS variables
$red-50: #FFF5F4; $red-100: #FFEBE8; $red-200: #FFDAD5; $red-300: #FFC2BB; $red-400: #FFA098; $red-500: #EF4444; $red-600: #C43636; $red-700: #942626; $red-800: #571313; $red-900: #260404; $gold-50: #FCFAF4; $gold-100: #FAF6E9; $gold-200: #F6EED8; $gold-300: #EFE3BE; $gold-400: #E7D49B; $gold-500: #D4AF37; $gold-600: #AD8F2B; $gold-700: #836B1E; $gold-800: #4C3D0E; $gold-900: #201803;
JSON tokens
{
"red": {
"50": "#FFF5F4",
"100": "#FFEBE8",
"200": "#FFDAD5",
"300": "#FFC2BB",
"400": "#FFA098",
"500": "#EF4444",
"600": "#C43636",
"700": "#942626",
"800": "#571313",
"900": "#260404"
},
"gold": {
"50": "#FCFAF4",
"100": "#FAF6E9",
"200": "#F6EED8",
"300": "#EFE3BE",
"400": "#E7D49B",
"500": "#D4AF37",
"600": "#AD8F2B",
"700": "#836B1E",
"800": "#4C3D0E",
"900": "#201803"
}
}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, Red and Gold); 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.