Saffron#FF9F00, a warm bold amber
Saffron in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more
Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.
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Why is it called Saffron?
Saffron's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A12 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Arabic, via Medieval Latin and Old French; the word's deeper origin is uncertain
Meaning: The spice, the dried stigmas of the crocus
SAF-run · /ˈsæfrən/
Arabic za'farān → Medieval Latin safranum → Old French safran → English saffron. Where the Arabic word came from is uncertain; Persian is one possibility.
The economics explain the reverence. Each Crocus sativus flower yields exactly three threads, and every one is picked by hand, on the order of 150,000 flowers to the kilogram. That has kept saffron the world's most expensive spice by weight for its entire recorded history. It colored the robes of Buddhist monks, the courts of Persia and the banquets of medieval Europe.
It also holds a rare distinction on this wheel. Most color words eventually drift away from the thing they were named for. Saffron never did: the color and the spice are still the same trade, because the spice never stopped mattering.
etymonline s.v. saffron; OED. Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources. Audio: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shades of Saffron, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #FF9F00. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, saffron-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 #FF9F00, like this whole page.
Is Saffron 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 #FF9F00 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 · 66 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #FF9F00 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 #FF9F00, like this whole page.
Saffron 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, #FF9F00 is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 10.3, 4.1× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 5.9, 2.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.8, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.6, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 2.1, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 1.8, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 2.0, under the 2.5 a press run varies by
shifts ΔE00 0.9, 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 Saffron
The spice, the dried stigmas of the crocus
Here are other colors similar to Saffron along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Ambers
| Orange Peel | Orange Peel | #FFA000 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Sea Buckthorn | Sea Buckthorn | #FBA129 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Orange | Orange | #FFA500 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Mango | Mango | #FFA62B | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Yellow Sea | Yellow Sea | #FEA904 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Yellowish Orange | Yellowish Orange | #FFAB0F | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Sun | Sun | #FBAC13 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Amber | Amber | #FFAC00 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Light Orange | Light Orange | #FDAA48 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Squash | Squash | #F2AB15 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Orange Yellow | Orange Yellow | #FFAD01 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Fuel Yellow | Fuel Yellow | #ECA927 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Buttercup | Buttercup | #F3AD16 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Yellow Orange | Yellow Orange | #FCB001 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Butterscotch | Butterscotch | #FDB147 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Fire Bush | Fire Bush | #E89928 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| My Sin | My Sin | #FFB31F | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Gamboge | Gamboge | #E49B0F | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Dixie | Dixie | #E29418 | black text · AAA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Quince | Quince | #FFB800 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Orangey Yellow | Orangey Yellow | #FDB915 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
| Selective Yellow | Selective Yellow | #FFBA00 | black text · AAA | ! within tolerance |
Colors that go with Saffron
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a cool vivid blue #3E75D8. 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 Saffron 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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