What is the hex code for espresso?

There is no official value, espresso is a descriptive name rather than a specified color. #3C2218 is a common choice: a very dark warm brown. Anything from roughly #3C2218 to #4A2C2A reads as espresso.

Is espresso the same as dark brown?

It is a dark brown with a specific character: warm, slightly red, and dark enough to substitute for black. A neutral dark brown reads flatter and less appetising.

What colors go with espresso?

Cream and ivory for contrast without harshness, brass or gold for warmth, sage and olive for an earthier scheme. Avoid pairing it with pure black, where it stops reading as brown at all.

Espresso color: hex codes, shades and palettes

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

Espresso is the deep, almost-black brown of a fresh shot, dark enough to work as a background, warm enough to never read as grey. A common value is #3C2218, though unlike a CSS keyword there is no single official definition.

Espresso hex, RGB, HSL and OKLCH

#3C2218

HEX: #3C2218
RGB: rgb(60, 34, 24)
HSL: hsl(17, 43%, 16%)
OKLCH: oklch(28.3% 0.044 41.7)
On white: 14.64:1
On black: 1.43:1

Shades of espresso

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.

Espresso color values

#3C2218rgb(60, 34, 24)

Color spaces of #3c2218
RGB	60	34	24
HSL	17°	43%	16%
HSV	17°	60%	24%
CMYK	0.00	0.43	0.60	0.76
XYZ	2.6005	2.1709	1.1460
Yxy	2.1709	0.4395	0.3669
CIE-Lab	16.3597	11.1834	11.9620
Hunter Lab	14.7339	5.7208	5.7021
OKLCH	28.3%	0.044	41.7°

#3C2218 is 60 red, 34 green and 24 blue. Its red channel carries the most of it. The nearest of the 216 web safe colors is #333300.

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	00111100	00100010	00011000
Octal	74	42	30
Decimal	60	34	24
Hex	3C	22	18

#3c2218 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.

#3C2218
#361E15
#301B13
#2A1710
#24140E
#1E110C
#180D09
#120A07
#0B0604
#050302
#000000

#3c2218 mixed with white

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

#3C2218
#4F382F
#634E46
#76645D
#8A7A74
#9D908B
#B1A6A2
#C4BCB9
#D8D2D0
#EBE8E7
#FFFFFF

Channel shares

Red50.8%
Green28.8%
Blue20.3%

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

#3C2218
#0B2E39

Triadic

#3C2218
#133023
#26273F

Analogous

#3C2218
#37260F
#3C2024

Monochromatic

#040000
#040000
#1D0601
#3C2218
#5D4136
#806256
#A58579

#3c2218 on black and on white

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 1.43:1

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. 14.64:1

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 #3c2218

color: #3c2218;
background-color: #3c2218;
border: 3px solid #3c2218;
box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px 2px #3c2218;
text-shadow: 4px 4px 2px rgba(60, 34, 24, 0.8);

/* Perceptually even, and what a modern stylesheet wants */
color: oklch(28.3% 0.044 41.7);

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.

Named shades and close relatives

A note on Pantone

Espresso is often searched for alongside Pantone. Pantone is a proprietary color matching system, and its numbered values are licensed rather than public, so no Pantone codes are reproduced here, any site listing them freely is republishing licensed data.

For print work the practical route is Pantone's own tools or a physical guide, since the whole point of the system is matching ink on paper, which no screen value can guarantee. What this page gives you is the screen side: a hex value, a shade scale and palettes that work.

Where espresso works

Coffee and food branding for the obvious reason, but it earns its place more widely as a warm alternative to black. Dark interfaces built on espresso rather than neutral grey feel less clinical, and it is a common base for leather goods, whisky, menswear and any brand reaching for craft rather than tech.

It pairs with cream and ivory for contrast without harshness, with brass or gold for warmth, and with sage or olive for something earthier. Against pure black it loses its identity entirely.

Contrast and readability

Espresso on white measures 14.64:1 and on black 1.43:1. 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 5.36:1.

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.

Espresso color questions

What is the hex code for espresso?: There is no official value, espresso is a descriptive name rather than a specified color. #3C2218 is a common choice: a very dark warm brown. Anything from roughly #3C2218 to #4A2C2A reads as espresso.
Is espresso the same as dark brown?: It is a dark brown with a specific character: warm, slightly red, and dark enough to substitute for black. A neutral dark brown reads flatter and less appetising.
What colors go with espresso?: Cream and ivory for contrast without harshness, brass or gold for warmth, sage and olive for an earthier scheme. Avoid pairing it with pure black, where it stops reading as brown at all.

Related colors: chocolate, mocha, coffee. See every shade on the colors index.

#574B3D

#7F653C

#8E8779

#B2A785

#C59F8B

#A67F68

#84614D

#554A45

#C9AD88

#9C8A6A

#766748

#4B473A

#634332

#835F49

#A37D64

#C79B81

#55463F

#7D6557

#AD8569

#BFB1A6

#CCB18C

#A08E66

#726E48

#4C4D29

#5D483E

#826A53

#A08F78

#C0B69C

#BFB5A9

#A38B61

#6E6858

#464539

#503920

#655B4C

#8C7A5A

#AF9D76

#61442E

#7F6D5B

#A4957B

#C7C1A2

#CBBEB7

#A4897A

#6D5E56

#473124

#D3BBA0

#A98D70

#80613F

#513A24

#D4B7AC

#AF9178

#816F59

#5C4E29

#5B3C2C

#815744

#947D74

#C49A87

#4D3A1E

#7B613E

#A88C63

#D3BA9D

#513822

#76593E

#927F71

#BCA38D

#B3A19C

#917F76

#705E4E

#4F3F2F

#D1B4A4

#9F8E7D

#70695D

#4A4436

#D5AC94

#97877A

#755C3B

#3F3A2F

#B3A393

#987E66

#775C40

#4C4035

#B4A99D

#947E64

#6D5740

#3F362B

#5F4633

#7D6859

#9D8D81

#D0AD97

#C0967F

#9A7E73

#876152

#6A4938

#BCB3A7

#A08C5D

#796842

#4D4830