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Even Bourbon

#8e7231
Notes

Even Bourbon (#8E7231) is a true amber with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (42°, 49%, 37%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. 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
#8e7231
RGB
rgb(142, 114, 49)
HSL
hsl(42, 49%, 37%)
HWB
hwb(42 19% 44%)
OKLCH
oklch(56.6% 0.090 85.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5394 0.4513 0.2342)
HSV
hsv(42, 65%, 56%)
LAB
lab(49.51% 3.32 39.25)
LCH
lch(49.51% 39.39 85.16)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 20%, 65%, 44%)

Etymology

Even
adjective

Old English efen, flat, equal — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as uniformly distributed across a surface. Even gray, even tan: the implication is moderate saturation combined with optical uniformity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and balanced.

Bourbon
noun

American corn-based whiskey — distilled and aged in new charred-oak barrels under U.S. federal regulation. The charring gives bourbon its characteristically saturated warm brown color. The color refers to a 10-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon: a saturated, slightly red-shifted warm brown with the optical depth of new-oak-aged spirit.

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.

#8e7231
Original
#7f712a
Protanopia
#867934
Deuteranopia
#9a6964
Tritanopia
#737373
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).
AAon White
4.56:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
4.60:1

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
##8E7231
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5394 0.4513 0.2342)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.090

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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