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Scattered Burlap

#a38e70
Notes

Scattered Burlap (#A38E70) is a true amber with a warm character. It leans warm, pulling light toward red, orange, and yellow. Naturally inviting, it suits editorial and hospitality contexts. Its HSL profile (35°, 22%, 54%) places it in the muted 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
#a38e70
RGB
rgb(163, 142, 112)
HSL
hsl(35, 22%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(35 44% 36%)
OKLCH
oklch(65.8% 0.049 76.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6256 0.5598 0.4533)
HSV
hsv(35, 31%, 64%)
LAB
lab(60.16% 3.23 18.91)
LCH
lch(60.16% 19.18 80.32)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 13%, 31%, 36%)

Etymology

Scattered
adjective

Old English scaterian, to scatter — past-participle of scatter. As a color modifier, scattered implies a pale-and-randomly-distributed-and-fragmented quality where the hue carries the visual register of random-and-irregular deposit-pattern decorative-and-irregular distribution. Sits at the pale-and-soft end of the grid, parallel to sprinkled and dappled in usage.

Burlap
noun

A coarse fabric woven from jute or hemp fiber — used historically for sacking, packing, and rough farm-clothing. The color refers to undyed natural burlap: a soft, slightly muted warm tan with the textured matte finish of bast-fiber weave. Drier than hemp, warmer than canvas.

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.

#a38e70
Original
#978e6e
Protanopia
#9c9371
Deuteranopia
#ac8886
Tritanopia
#909090
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).
AA Largeon White
3.15:1
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
6.66:1

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
##A38E70
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6256 0.5598 0.4533)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.049

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

Related Colors

Canvas