A vivid medium red, black text passes AA
What color is salmon?
The CSS named color salmon is #fa8072, or rgb(250 128 114): a vivid medium red in plain words. Black text on it reaches 8.40:1, passing WCAG AAA, and Recolor (recolor.page) can put it on a real page.
Last updated
| Format | Value |
|---|---|
| Keyword | salmon |
| Hex | #fa8072 |
| RGB | rgb(250 128 114) |
| HSL | hsl(6 93% 71%) |
| OKLCH | oklch(73.5% 0.152 28.1) |
| Nearest Tailwind color | red-400 #ff6467, 0.053 away in OKLab |
| White text | 2.50:1: AA fails, AAA fails, large text fails |
| Black text | 8.40:1: AA passes, AAA passes, large text passes |
About salmon
In OKLCH terms salmon has a lightness of 73.5%, a chroma of 0.152 and a hue of 28.1 degrees, a vivid medium red to the eye.
Here HSL's lightness, 71%, lands near OKLCH's 73.5%, which is not true of every color. Among the CSS keywords, lightcoral (#f08080) comes closest at 0.025 in OKLab, close enough to stand in for it in a sketch.
For text, salmon wants black: 8.40:1 clears even AAA's 7:1, and white at 2.50:1 fails AA. Its neighbors in the hue-sorted list of names are mistyrose and lightcoral.
The closest Tailwind 4.3.3 color is red-400, 0.053 away in OKLab, so bg-red-400 comes near; bg-[#fa8072] gives the color itself.
Tints and shades
- #ffebe7
- #ffd6cf
- #ffc1b8
- #ffaca1
- #fe9689
- #fa8072
- #c46358
- #91483f
- #612e28
- #351612
- #0e0303
From light to dark: 5 toward white and 5 toward black, mixed in OKLCH a sixth of the way at a time with the hue kept. A step that would repeat its neighbor is left out.
A palette around it
- #fa8072
- #6e524a
- #ffe1be
- #1b2c33
- #5a9a80
Locked as the first of five swatches, salmon gets #6e524a, #ffe1be, #1b2c33, #5a9a80 from Recolor's generator, a free palette, hues spread around the wheel. The seed is its hex, so the palette stays the same. Open it in Recolor.
Using salmon
As a text color, salmon on a black page gives the same 8.40:1.
.notice {
background-color: salmon; /* #fa8072 */
color: black; /* 8.40:1 */
}Common questions
Does white text pass WCAG AA on salmon?
No. White text measures 2.50:1 on salmon, under AA's 4.5:1; black text measures 8.40:1 and passes.
Can salmon be written in OKLCH?
Yes: oklch(73.5% 0.152 28.1), computed from #fa8072. A named color is an sRGB color, so its OKLCH value converts back to the same hex.
Is there a named color close to salmon?
Yes: lightcoral (#f08080) is the nearest, 0.025 away in OKLab, then coral at 0.038.