Auburn

About Auburn

Auburn (#6D351A) is a dark, moderately saturated shade of brown. Its hue angle is 20°, which places it between red at 0° and orange at 30°, nearer to 30°. In RGB it is mixed from red 109, green 53 and blue 26, that is 43%, 21% and 10% of each channel, so red leads the mix. In HSL terms that is 20° hue, 61% saturation and 26% lightness.

It belongs to the warm half of the wheel, so it visually steps forward and makes a layout feel closer and more energetic. Its closest relatives in the catalogue are Hairy Heath, Metallic Copper and Peanut. Opposite it on the wheel lies #1A506B, close to Chathams Blue.

How to use Auburn

Auburn is dark but still clearly coloured, which makes it a good base for headers, footers, brand blocks and dark themes. Following the 60-30-10 rule, give it the role of secondary colour (the 30%).

To build states around Auburn, take #944924 for hover and #FAF0EA for a light background version.

Auburn as text and background

Against white the ratio is 9.66:1: enough for WCAG AAA, so Auburn is safe for any text size. On black the contrast is only 2.17:1, so it is not a text colour for dark backgrounds.

When Auburn is the background, put white text on it: the contrast is 9.66:1. Read more about ratios in our guide to WCAG contrast.

Auburn on screen and in print

The approximate CMYK breakdown is C 0% · M 51% · Y 76% · K 57%. It is well inside what four-colour printing can reproduce, so the printed result should match the screen closely. More on that in our article RGB vs CMYK.