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Sheer Cuivré

#bb9d8c
Notes

Sheer Cuivré (#BB9D8C) is a true orange 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 (22°, 26%, 64%) 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
#bb9d8c
RGB
rgb(187, 157, 140)
HSL
hsl(22, 26%, 64%)
HWB
hwb(22 55% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.8% 0.043 51.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7143 0.6201 0.5580)
HSV
hsv(22, 25%, 73%)
LAB
lab(66.96% 8.45 13.03)
LCH
lch(66.96% 15.53 57.04)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 16%, 25%, 27%)

Etymology

Sheer
adjective

Old English scīr, clear, pure — used as a color modifier since the eighteenth century for hues with the optical translucency of fine fabric. Sheer white, sheer blue: very low saturation combined with the optical impression of fabric with low fiber density. Sits at the pale-bucket alongside diaphanous.

Cuivré
noun

The French word for coppered or copper-tone — used in fashion vocabulary for the warm metallic orange of polished copper or auburn hair. The color refers to a freshly polished copper kettle: a warm, slightly red metallic orange with the satin finish of unoxidized metal. The French cousin of copper.

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.

#bb9d8c
Original
#a59f8b
Protanopia
#aca58c
Deuteranopia
#c49898
Tritanopia
#a2a2a2
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).
Failon White
2.53:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
8.31:1

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
##BB9D8C
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7143 0.6201 0.5580)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.043

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.

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