Butterscotch Color Codes

Butterscotch is a light, vivid orange with the hex code #FDB147, RGB values of 253, 177, 71 and an HSL value of hsl(35, 98%, 64%).

HEX	#FDB147
RGB	253, 177, 71
HSL	hsl(35, 98%, 64%)
HSV	35°, 72%, 99%
CMYK	0%, 30%, 72%, 1%
LAB	77.75, 18.47, 62.83
CIELCHuv	77.75, 90.69, 47.67°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 150 C ΔE 8.1 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: goldenrod ΔE 13.5

Community source color-name-list, community color-name index

Butterscotch Color Hex Code

The Butterscotch color hex code is #FDB147. Those six digits are three pairs, FD for red, B1 for green and 47 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#FDB147

Butterscotch Color RGB Code

The Butterscotch RGB code is rgb(253, 177, 71). Red carries the most light at 253 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(253, 177, 71)

Butterscotch Color HSV Code

The Butterscotch HSV code is 35°, 72%, 99%. Read it as a hue of 35 degrees, 72% saturation and 99% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

35°, 72%, 99%

Butterscotch Color CIELChuv Code

The Butterscotch CIELCHuv code is 77.75, 90.69, 47.67°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 78 means light to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 91 is how far it sits from grey.

77.75, 90.69, 47.67°

Tonal scale

What are Butterscotch Color Palettes?

A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.

Shades, toward black

Tints, toward white

Tones, toward grey

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Butterscotch Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #FDB147. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Directly opposite sits #4793FD, a mid-tone, vivid azure blue. No other pairing separates two hues further, so this is the one to reach for when a single element has to win attention. Both are saturated, so give the complement much less area than the base or the two will fight.

Analogous

#FD5647 and #EEFD47 sit 30 degrees either side. All three share most of their hue, so the set reads as one family instead of three separate decisions. Good for backgrounds and for state variations that should not announce themselves.

Triadic

#47FDB1 and #B147FD complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.

Split-complementary

Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #47EEFD and #5647FD. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.

Tetradic

Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #4793FD, and #47FD56 with #FD47EE. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat the darkest of the four as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.

White background

1.82:1

1.82

contrast ratio on white background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Fails	Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Fails	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Fails	n/a

Black background

11.56:1

11.56

contrast ratio on black background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Passes	Passes
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Passes	Passes
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

At 1.82:1 against white, Butterscotch is a fill color rather than a text color. Use it for surfaces, borders and large display type, and set the copy in ink. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 11.56:1. It is a highly saturated color, so it will dominate anything it sits beside. Give it space rather than surrounding it with other strong colors.

Check Butterscotch against another color →

Color vision

How Butterscotch looks with color blindness

Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.

Protanopia

About 1% of men

actual

#E0E06D

Butterscotch changes substantially here. ΔE 35.7

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#E4EA74

Butterscotch changes substantially here. ΔE 39.1

No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.

Tritanopia

About 1 in 10,000

actual

#FA8387

Butterscotch changes substantially here. ΔE 52.6

No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.

Achromatopsia

About 1 in 30,000

actual

#C0C0C0

Butterscotch changes substantially here. ΔE 65.5

No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.

To a deuteranope, the most common form, Butterscotch reads as #E4EA74. That is a shift of ΔE 39.1, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. It sits in the red end of the spectrum, which is exactly where red-green deficiency does its damage. Never pair it with a green of similar lightness to signal a difference in meaning: to a large minority the two become one color. The widest shift is under tritanopia, at ΔE 52.6. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Butterscotch in code

:root {
  --butterscotch: #FDB147;
}

.example {
  color: var(--butterscotch);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'butterscotch': '#FDB147',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let butterscotch = Color(
    red: 0.992,
    green: 0.694,
    blue: 0.278
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="butterscotch">#FDB147</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const butterscotch = Color(0xFFFDB147);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Butterscotch Color?

Butterscotch reads as craft and durability. It is saturated enough to dominate anything it sits beside, and at 98% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 78 it behaves as a warm color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Butterscotch Color?

The closest CSS keyword is Goldenrod (#DAA520), though it is not a match: Delta-E 13.5 means the difference is visible side by side. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 150 C at #FCAD56. The name Butterscotch comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Butterscotch Color Made?

On a screen Butterscotch is made by additive light: 253 red, 177 green and 71 blue out of 255, with red leading and 71 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 0%, 30%, 72%, 1%. Starting from the pure hue at 35 degrees, Butterscotch is close to the pure hue, with little white or black in it.