Clay color: hex codes, shades and palettes

Palettes built around clay. Click any swatch to copy its hex code.

A light warm brown-grey, the colour of unfired earthenware. Sits between taupe and terracotta and reads as a neutral in practice.

Clay hex, RGB, HSL and OKLCH

#A98A7C

HEX: #A98A7C
RGB: rgb(169, 138, 124)
HSL: hsl(19, 21%, 57%)
OKLCH: oklch(65.8% 0.043 45.6)
On white: 3.18:1
On black: 6.61:1

Shades of clay

9 steps from one base color, generated in OKLCH so each step is an equal perceived step rather than an equal numeric one. Click a swatch to copy it.

Clay color values

#A98A7Crgb(169, 138, 124)

Color spaces of #a98a7c
RGB	169	138	124
HSL	19°	21%	57%
HSV	19°	27%	66%
CMYK	0.00	0.18	0.27	0.34
XYZ	29.0891	28.0684	22.9503
Yxy	28.0684	0.3631	0.3504
CIE-Lab	59.9505	9.5788	11.9237
Hunter Lab	52.9796	5.2934	11.4018
OKLCH	65.8%	0.043	45.6°

#A98A7C is 169 red, 138 green and 124 blue. Its red channel carries the most of it. The nearest of the 216 web safe colors is #999966.

CIE-Lab, XYZ and Yxy are measured against D65, the white point sRGB itself is defined against. Hunter Lab uses the original illuminant C constants, which is what paint and plastics specifications quote, so the two Lab rows are not directly comparable. CMYK is the plain arithmetic conversion: real ink values depend on the press, the paper and the profile.

Base numbers
Base	Red	Green	Blue
Binary	10101001	10001010	01111100
Octal	251	212	174
Decimal	169	138	124
Hex	A9	8A	7C

#a98a7c mixed with black

Ten even steps of the classic shade ramp, worked out in RGB, which is how the term has always been defined and how other references list it. The OKLCH scale further down this page answers a different question: it steps by equal perceived amounts, so its values are not the same.

#A98A7C
#987C6F
#876E63
#766056
#65524A
#54453E
#433731
#322925
#211B18
#100D0C
#000000

#a98a7c mixed with white

The tint ramp, by the same rule in the other direction.

#A98A7C
#B19589
#BAA196
#C2ADA3
#CBB8B0
#D4C4BD
#DCD0CA
#E5DBD7
#EDE7E4
#F6F3F1
#FFFFFF

Channel shares

Red39.2%
Green32.0%
Blue28.8%

Color schemes

Turned in OKLCH rather than HSL, so every member keeps the lightness and chroma of the original instead of one of them arriving washed out.

Complementary

#A98A7C
#7698A6

Triadic

#A98A7C
#799B8B
#8F8EAC

Analogous

#A98A7C
#A18F75
#AB8789

Monochromatic

#3F261B
#614539
#846759
#A98A7C
#CFAFA0
#F7D5C6
#FFF6F3

#a98a7c on black and on white

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 6.61:1

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 3.18:1

Body text needs 4.5:1 to meet AA and large text needs 3:1, so a ratio tells you which of the two backgrounds this color can be read on, and at what size.

CSS for #a98a7c

color: #a98a7c;
background-color: #a98a7c;
border: 3px solid #a98a7c;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px 2px #a98a7c;
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(169, 138, 124, 0.8);

/* Perceptually even, and what a modern stylesheet wants */
color: oklch(65.8% 0.043 45.6);

The OKLCH form is the same color stated so that lightening or darkening it moves by an amount the eye agrees with. Every current browser understands it.

Contrast and readability

Clay on white measures 3.18:1 and on black 6.61:1. WCAG AA asks for 4.5:1 on normal text and 3:1 on large text and UI components, so the higher of those two decides which background it belongs on. In the scale above, 500 is the first to clear 4.5:1 on white, at 5.34:1.

The contrast checker reports every level for a given pair and suggests the nearest passing shade on the same hue. The color picker builds this same scale from any color you paste in.

Related colors: taupe, brown, tan, sand, tuscan, umber. See every shade on the colors index.

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