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Sure Mocha

#d9ac77
Notes

Sure Mocha (#D9AC77) 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 (32°, 56%, 66%) 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
#d9ac77
RGB
rgb(217, 172, 119)
HSL
hsl(32, 56%, 66%)
HWB
hwb(32 47% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.3% 0.087 70.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8232 0.6813 0.4953)
HSV
hsv(32, 45%, 85%)
LAB
lab(73.28% 9.72 33.47)
LCH
lch(73.28% 34.85 73.81)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 21%, 45%, 15%)

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.

Mocha
noun

A variety of agate from the Yemeni port of al-Mukhā — characterized by tree-like dendritic inclusions in a yellow-tan ground. Also the Yemeni coffee that gave its name to the chocolate-coffee drink. The color refers to a polished mocha-agate cabochon: a soft, slightly muted warm tan with the matte finish of cryptocrystalline silica.

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.

#d9ac77
Original
#bcae73
Protanopia
#c6b878
Deuteranopia
#e8a19f
Tritanopia
#b2b2b2
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
2.08:1
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
10.12:1

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
##D9AC77
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8232 0.6813 0.4953)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.087

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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