Exploring the Color #542A40

#542A40 sits at 329° on the color wheel, placing it in the rose family of the neutral half of the spectrum. With 33% saturation and 25% lightness, it reads as a softly muted, shadowed tone — a balanced mid-energy presence that sits comfortably alongside other UI tones. Its RGB mix of 84, 42, 64 produces a 11.78:1 contrast ratio against white, which clears WCAG AAA for body text in that pairing.

In RGB space #542A40 is a distant relative of CSS dim gray — about 78 units away from #696969. Designers reach for rose hues at this saturation when the brief calls for a conversational, mid-energy register, and at this lightness when they want weight, depth, and grounded contrast. On screen the balanced cast tends to pair best with either warm or cool accents depending on the surrounding palette.

Darkening Shades

Lightening Shades