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Sure Sunrise

#8a3509
Notes

Sure Sunrise (#8A3509) 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 (20°, 88%, 29%) 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#8a3509
RGB
rgb(138, 53, 9)
HSL
hsl(20, 88%, 29%)
HWB
hwb(20 4% 46%)
OKLCH
oklch(44.3% 0.126 42.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5014 0.2290 0.0960)
HSV
hsv(20, 93%, 54%)
LAB
lab(33.92% 34.28 41.87)
LCH
lch(33.92% 54.12 50.69)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 62%, 93%, 46%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Sunrise
noun

The atmospheric color at the moment the sun crosses the horizon at dawn — the same atmospheric optics as sunset but with cooler, slightly cleaner air at lower morning temperature. The color refers to the eastern horizon at sunrise on a clear summer morning: a saturated, slightly cool orange with the optical brightness of forward-scattered solar light. Cooler than sunset.

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 explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

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.

#8a3509
Original
#4e4401
Protanopia
#625704
Deuteranopia
#981f2d
Tritanopia
#444444
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

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.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon White
8.10:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
2.59:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##8A3509
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5014 0.2290 0.0960)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.126

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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