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Terra Cotta Color Codes

Terra Cotta is a mid-tone, saturated red with the hex code #E2725B, RGB values of 226, 114, 91 and an HSL value of hsl(10, 70%, 62%).

HEX#E2725B
RGB226, 114, 91
HSLhsl(10, 70%, 62%)
HSV10°, 60%, 89%
CMYK0%, 50%, 60%, 11%
LAB60.75, 41.59, 32.80
CIELCHuv60.75, 90.49, 19.81°
Nearest Pantone
PMS 170 C ΔE 8.4 · approximate
Nearest CSS name
salmon ΔE 8.3

Source Wikipedia, List of colors

Terra Cotta Color Hex Code

The Terra Cotta color hex code is #E2725B. Those six digits are three pairs, E2 for red, 72 for green and 5B for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#E2725B

Terra Cotta Color RGB Code

The Terra Cotta RGB code is rgb(226, 114, 91). Red carries the most light at 226 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(226, 114, 91)

Terra Cotta Color HSV Code

The Terra Cotta HSV code is 10°, 60%, 89%. Read it as a hue of 10 degrees, 60% saturation and 89% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

10°, 60%, 89%

Terra Cotta Color CIELChuv Code

The Terra Cotta CIELCHuv code is 60.75, 90.49, 19.81°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 61 means mid-toned to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 90 is how far it sits from grey.

60.75, 90.49, 19.81°

Tonal scale

What are Terra Cotta 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 Terra Cotta Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #E2725B. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Directly opposite sits #5BCBE2, a light, saturated cyan. No other pairing separates two hues further, so this is the one to reach for when a single element has to win attention. Neither is especially saturated, so this pairing stays calm enough for large areas of both.

Analogous

#E25B88 and #E2B65B 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

#5BE272 and #725BE2 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: #5BE2B6 and #5B88E2. 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 #5BCBE2, and #88E25B with #B65BE2. 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

Contrast checker: is Terra Cotta accessible?

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

3.09:1

3.09

contrast ratio on white background

ElementAAAAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1 Fails Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1 Passes Fails
UI component needs 3:1 Passes n/a

Black background

6.79:1

6.79

contrast ratio on black background

ElementAAAAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1 Passes Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1 Passes Passes
UI component needs 3:1 Passes n/a

Against white Terra Cotta reaches 3.09:1, enough for large text and UI borders, but short of the 4.5:1 that body copy needs. Darken it for anything set small. Text placed on it should be black, which gives 6.79:1.

Color vision

How Terra Cotta 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

#BCBB61

Terra Cotta changes substantially here. ΔE 56.9

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

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men
actual

#C2C963

Terra Cotta changes substantially here. ΔE 63.2

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

#DE6667

Terra Cotta shifts noticeably here. ΔE 12.0

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

#929292

Terra Cotta changes substantially here. ΔE 53.0

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, Terra Cotta reads as #C2C963. That is a shift of ΔE 63.2, 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 deuteranopia, at ΔE 63.2. 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.

Snippets

Using Terra Cotta in code

:root {
  --terra-cotta: #E2725B;
}

.example {
  color: var(--terra-cotta);
}