Buried Cadmium
Buried Cadmium (#7E2305) is a deep orange with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (15°, 92%, 26%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary cyan. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English byrgan, to inter — past-participle of bury. As a color modifier, buried implies the deep-shrouded darkness of a sealed-and-covered hue, where surface qualities are obscured by intervening material. Sits at the deep-and-obscured end of the grid, parallel to cloaked and entombed.
The metallic element Cd — and cadmium orange, the cadmium-sulfoselenide pigment introduced in the 1840s as a more lightfast alternative to chrome and lead pigments. The color refers to fresh cadmium-orange paint in oil: a saturated, slightly red orange with the matte finish of mineral pigment in linseed oil. Brighter than chrome.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.