Amber#FFAC00, a warm bold amber
Amber in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more
Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.
ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works
Why is it called Amber?
Amber's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A13 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Arabic, via Old French, and originally it named something else entirely
Meaning: First ambergris, the whale secretion; then the Baltic fossil resin
AM-ber · /ˈæmbər/
Arabic 'anbar, "ambergris," probably from Middle Persian ambar → Old French ambre → Middle English ambre, by the mid-1300s → English amber.
Ambergris is the waxy substance that forms in sperm-whale intestines and washes up on beaches, long prized by perfumers. That is what the word meant first. Then, in Europe, it quietly changed subjects: it attached itself instead to the fossilized tree resin that washes up on Baltic shores, and that meaning took over completely. Medieval writers had to keep the two apart by calling one ambre gris, "gray amber," and the other ambre jaune, "yellow amber."
Why anyone connected them in the first place is honestly unclear. The flattest theory is just that both wash up on beaches, and some etymologists suspect they were never the same word at all.
One more marvel comes along for the ride. The Greek name for the resin was ēlektron, and amber's odd habit of picking up straw after you rub it is the reason electricity carries that name today.
etymonline s.v. amber, ambergris, electric; Wiktionary s.v. amber. Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources. Audio: Commander Keane, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shades of Amber, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #FFAC00. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, amber-400.
Tints (light surfaces; dark text passes on every one)
Midtones (the color at full strength, for brand & accent work)
Shades (dark surfaces; light text passes on every one)
Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.
Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.
The window on the right was generated from #FFAC00, like this whole page.
Is Amber accessible? Contrast with white & black
Strong contrast makes your work readable by everyone, and meets the WCAG standard accessibility law points at. AA is the floor; AAA is the tier worth aiming for in body text. Black text on #FFAC00 clears WCAG AAA. Every strip below is one surface, and the marks are the steps that reach AAA on it.
Rows are text, columns are background · 68 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #FFAC00 against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.
The audit on the right was calibrated from #FFAC00, like this whole page.
Amber in CMYK: one value for files, one per press
Presses move this color a little, by less than a print run varies anyway, so a printer would call it a match. The pairs below show where each standard lands.
In CMYK, #FFAC00 is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 8.9, 3.6× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 5.2, 2.1× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.6, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.3, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.9, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.3, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.6, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 0.8, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
Press values computed through the ICC characterization data each standard proofs against. Each CMYK above is the closest that standard can get, near enough that a press run's own variation is the larger difference.
No surprises at the printer.
Run any color through the major press standards: FOGRA51, GRACoL, Japan Color, FOGRA39. It's coming soon. Create a free account and you'll get a note the moment it's live.
The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.
Colors similar to Amber
First ambergris, the whale secretion; then the Baltic fossil resin
Here are other colors similar to Amber along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Ambers
| Orange Yellow | Orange Yellow | #FFAD01 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Yellowish Orange | Yellowish Orange | #FFAB0F | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Sun | Sun | #FBAC13 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Yellow Sea | Yellow Sea | #FEA904 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Yellow Orange | Yellow Orange | #FCB001 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| My Sin | My Sin | #FFB31F | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Orange | Orange | #FFA500 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Buttercup | Buttercup | #F3AD16 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Mango | Mango | #FFA62B | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Squash | Squash | #F2AB15 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Butterscotch | Butterscotch | #FDB147 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Orange Peel | Orange Peel | #FFA000 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Quince | Quince | #FFB800 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Orangey Yellow | Orangey Yellow | #FDB915 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Saffron | Saffron | #FF9F00 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Light Orange | Light Orange | #FDAA48 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Sea Buckthorn | Sea Buckthorn | #FBA129 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Fuel Yellow | Fuel Yellow | #ECA927 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Selective Yellow | Selective Yellow | #FFBA00 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Gamboge | Gamboge | #E49B0F | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Fire Bush | Fire Bush | #E89928 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Dixie | Dixie | #E29418 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
Colors that go with Amber
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a cool vivid blue #2959BD. Rhapsody's pick is the split complement, just to one side of it, a livelier pair.
The accent is for the moments that need attention, the harmony for the ones that need calm; the neutral carries the text and surfaces in between.
Take Amber with you
The work on this page doesn't stay here. Save a card and the color arrives in your file, your deck or your board already decided.
Your system is already built.
Rhapsody built it before you even asked: the scale, the neutrals, the utilities, every pairing calibrated.
This page's whole theme is built from one color. Palette does the same for yours: every step calibrated, every pairing checked, press included.
Every color on this page was calibrated, not mixed.
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