Apricot color
Apricot is the color of the orange color spectrum. It belongs to the pale orange red colour subspectrum, which is also known as salmon.
Here you can see how the color Apricot looks alongside its neighbors on the color wheel:
Apricot in the middle
Color psychology
As it was already mentioned, Apricot is a type of orange color. In its meaning, orange is associated with energy, cheerfulness, activity, fire and warmth. Similar to yellow, orange takes the liveliness of it up a notch, while adding many aspects of red associated with warmth, as related to the color of flames. It also stimulates action rather than contemplation, promotion actions and events over thinking and contemplations. In contrast to yellow, lighter variations of orange do not produce a sense of relaxation, and can be seen by many as rather dull.
Orange is featured in many brands whose target audience is children, as well as it is extensively used by food companies and any businesses related to fire (fireworks, fireplaces, chimneys, BBQ supplies, etc.). Similar to yellow, orange is used to stimulate positive attitude and may encourage hedge customers (those not sure whether to buy or not) to actually make that purchase. This makes orange a suitable choice for call to action
elements.
It is still important to remember, however, that the meaning of orange color, and thus also Apricot, often depends on personal associations and preferences. It means that if used creatively, it can be employed for any marketing and branding purpose.
Web specifications
Web specifications of the Apricot color include its representations in various color models. A color model is an abstract, mathematical way of describing any color via a combination of numerical parameters.
RGB
The RGB or Red, Green, Blue color model is a color model that describes any color as a mixture of red, green, and blue colors. This is an additive color model, meaning that it adds different amounts of red, green and blue to black, black being the absence of color. The Apricot color consists of 98% red, 81% green and 69% blue. In absolute RGB units (where the minimum is 0 and the maximum is 255) it is 249 red, 206 green and 175 blue. In other words, the RGB code of the Apricot color is rgb(249, 206, 175).
RGB charts
The RGB charts of the color Apricot:
CMYK
The CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (black) color model is a color model that describes any color as a mixture of cyan, magenta, and yellow colors. This is a subtractive color model, mainly used in printing, meaning that it subtracts different amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow and black from white, where white is the natural color of paper. The Apricot color consists of 0% cyan, 17% magenta, 29% yellow and 2% black. In other words, the CMYK code of the Apricot color is cmyk(0%, 17%, 29%, 2%)
CMYK charts
The CMYK charts of the color Apricot:
HEX
The HEX or hexadecimal color model is a color model that describes colors with a combination of six or three (shortened version when applicable) hexadecimal values, ranging from 0 to 9 and from a (representing 10) to f (representing 15). The six characters are divided into three pairs, where the first two characters represent the color red, the middle two - green, and the last two - blue. Much like the RGB color model HEX describes any color as a combination of red, green and blue with the minimum of 0 (00 in HEX) and the maximum of 255 (ff in HEX). The HEX code of the Apricot color is FBCEB1.
HSV
The HSV or Hue, Saturation, Value color model is a color model that describes color as belonging to a particular hue (numerical value of belonging to a certain part of the visible color spectrum), as well as having a certain degree of saturation (distance to the non-spectral colors gray and white) and lightness (Value; distance to the non-spectral color black). The HSV code of the Apricot color is hsv(24, 0.29%, 0.98%).
HSL
The HSL or Hue, Saturation, Lightness color model is a color model that describes color as belonging to a particular hue (numerical value of belonging to a certain part of the visible color spectrum), as well as having a certain degree of saturation (distance to the non-spectral color gray) and lightness (distance to the non-spectral colors black and white). The HSL code of the Apricot color is hsl(24, 90%, 84%).
Web safe colors
Web safe colors comprise 216 colors that in the past were the only colors guaranteed to be displayed properly on any operating system and any (up-to-date technology-wise) monitor. This palette comes from times when monitors could only display 256 colors, and only 216 of them were the same on all the major operating systems. Nowadays, web safe colors are rarely used exclusively, as the abovementioned limitations do not exist anymore. However, if you want to make a website in the '90s design, it is useful to know that Apricot is not one of the web safe colors.
Color blindness
Color blindess or, in medical terms, color vision deficiency is a medical condition which decreases the ability to see certain colors or differences between colors. Colorblind people may experience problems with distinguishing and/or noticing objects in certain environments or on certain backgrounds, matching colors in, for example, clothing or operating color-coded systems, e.g. buttons of a visual computer interface. Color blindness is an umbrella term, comprising a number of different conditions. Here you will find information about how the Apricot color is perceived under various types of color vision deficiency.
Monochromacy
Monochromacy is the ability to only distinguish colors of a very narrow spectrum corresponding to a single light frequency. In other words, monochromats are only able to see shades, tints and tones of a single colour.
Achromatopsia
A person with achromatopsia, that is inability to perceive any colors other than black, white and shades of gray, sees the Apricot color as the color rgb(213, 213, 213), which you can see beside this description. This is similar to seeing everything in grayscale, i.e. in black-and-white vision.
When ordering a web site or design that people with color vision deficiency may use, it is advisable to consult the Arteqo development team about this, as usually such a project requires color palette adaptation. One of our top priorities is to ensure that our websites are accessible to everyone, which is why the use of the color Apricot may be limited.
Color theory
Color theory is a discipline that studies the use of color combinations is design and art. Here you will find the basic combinations for the Apricot color, discover when to use them, how to expand and modify them, as well as what effects may be achieved by the use of these sets of colors.
Color theory is based on the use of the color wheel: a visual color model showing all the colors in a sequence according to their wavelengths. Thus, the color wheel demonstrates the relations and transitions between different hues.
The color Apricot, depending on its particular hue, has the wavelength of 590 - 620 nm.
Analogous colors
Analogous colors are colors of different hues located nearby on the color wheel. Depending on a particular representation model, a set of analogous colors may or may not include colors of different saturation and lightness.
An example of four analogous colors of the Apricot color:
hsl(56, 90%, 84%) hsl(40, 90%, 84%) Apricot hsl(8, 90%, 84%) hsl(-8, 90%, 84%)
Analogous colors are used to create a uniform, natural palette with well-matched accents. If you wish to order a website design that would be almost universally seen as natural, balanced, serious, an analogous color palette is the way to go. This, of course, also depends on the choice of colors themselves (e.g. red vs. blue), but in general an analogous palette creates a sense of order and systematic approach, which is usually the preferred choice of websites for businesses, manufacturing companies and alike.
Monochromatic colors
Monochromatic colors are a set of colors derived from one basic hue. Thus, such a pallete is just a number of darker and lighter variations of the same color. Much like analogous palettes, monochromatic color sets are cohesive, natural. Its main difference is that it does not allow persuasive accents, which may create a risk of looking boring and dull. However, it should also be noted, that monochromatic palettes are good for establishing corporate color schemes, thus providing help in branding your company.
An example of four monochromatic colors of the Apricot color:
hsl(24, 74%, 68%) hsl(24, 82%, 76%) Apricot hsl(24, 98%, 92%) hsl(24, 100%, 100%)
Monochromatic colors may be the top choice for websites of companies who wish to establish a brand or re-brand themselves, or to emphasize their choice of corporate colors. This palette is also a good choice for establishing a visual background on which accents are placed, in case such a background simultaneously requires to use several color and to be discreet, subtle and unnoticeable. There are also particular situations in which monochromatic palletes shine - minimalistic web design, as well as logotype and other symbol development.
Triadic colors
Triadic colors are a set of three colors with even spaces between them on the color wheel. It is one of the most basic, but versatile color combinations, as it incorporates more than two color of very different hues, which makes it a great choice for a simple but effective design.
The triadic color combination of the color Apricot is:
hsl(144, 90%, 84%) Apricot hsl(-96, 90%, 84%)
Triadic palettes produce vibrant, contrastive combinations that are able to create very unique website designs. At the same time, the contrast is not radical, which allows for a balanced look. In general a triadic palette is one of the most universal combinations, as it provides possibilities both for accents and homogenous appearance, depending on the wishes of the client. It also yields itself well, when all the three colors, Apricot and its two triadic partners, are used as accents against neutral backgrounds, i.e. grey, white and black.
Tetradic colors
Tetradic color palette is a combination of four colors that form two complementary (see below) pairs. On a color wheel they appear to be arranged in either a wider rectangle, more narrow rectangle (with two adjascent pairs) or a square, hence the names of the three variations of this palette. Tetradic combinations offer a wide variety of choices, allowing for any kind of design to be produced.
Square
The tetradic square color combination of the color Apricot is:
Apricot hsl(204, 90%, 84%) hsl(114, 90%, 84%) hsl(-66, 90%, 84%)
The square pallete is the most coherent out of the three tetradic varieties, as all the colors are evenly spaced out on a color wheel. This means that the transition between the hues happens at an equal pace - there are no sudden jumps
from more similar colors to a less similar color.
Rectangular
There are two possible ways to build a tetradic rectangular color palette for the color Apricot. The first one looks like this:
Apricot hsl(204, 90%, 84%) hsl(144, 90%, 84%) hsl(-36, 90%, 84%)
And the second one looks like this:
Apricot hsl(204, 90%, 84%) hsl(-96, 90%, 84%) hsl(84, 90%, 84%)
The rectangulal combination has an intermediate amount of contrast out of the three tetradic palettes. This is why it is usually chosen to produce color-rich, varied designs that still need to have some sort of coherence in them. They can also be extensively used in color-coding, as the difference between the hues of these color is big, and at the same times they can be easily adjusted to look harmonic, so as not to stand out too much from the overall design.
Adjacent
There are two possible ways to build a tetradic adjacent color palette for the color Apricot. The first one looks like this:
Apricot hsl(204, 90%, 84%) hsl(54, 90%, 84%) hsl(-126, 90%, 84%)
And the second one looks like this:
Apricot hsl(204, 90%, 84%) hsl(-6, 90%, 84%) hsl(174, 90%, 84%)
The adjacent palette creates two pairs of colors, where the colors in each pair are quite similar to each other, but highly contrastive to colors from the other pair. This combination allows creating very unique website designs with highly unusual visual solutions.
Complementary colors
Complementary colors are colors that are directly opposite to each other on a color wheel, and thus have maximum contrast between them.
The complementary color combination for Apricot is:
Apricot hsl(204, 90%, 84%)
Complementary colors, by their very nature, are the accents to each other, meaning that if they are to be used as a base for a website design, one of them should be the background color and the other - its contrastive accent. If used equally, they must either color-code two distinct parts of the site, or be supplemented with other colors. In this case both can be used as accents and/or parts of the background. In general, though, it is rare to see only a pair of complementary colors to be used in a website - such a pair is a very specific tool and is usually not suited for most of the websites to be used exclusively.
Compound colors
The compound or spilt-complementary color combination is three colors, one of which is a base (Apricot in this case) and the other two - its approximate complementaries (contrasts). This creates a pair of similar colors along with a distinctively different color, that can be used as a background.
The compound (split-complementary) color combination of the color Apricot is:
hsl(174, 90%, 84%) Apricot hsl(-126, 90%, 84%)
The compound color palette is similar to complementary schemes - it creates just as contrastive combination of colors. Nevertheless, as here complementaries are approximate, not precise, it creates less tension. As such, this color palette is a bit similar to the triadic pallete, having the same versatility, but it also allows for stronger accents.
Variations
Variations are the different versions of the color Apricot. Variations include categories more specific than a range of monochromatic colors. One could also say that a monochromatic palette is a combination of different variations of Apricot. These versions are divided into three groups:
- shades
- tints
- tones
Shades
A shade is a mixture of a certain color with black. This means, that shades of the color Apricot are the darker versions of it.
Tints
A tint is a mixture of a certain color with white. This means, that shades of the color Apricot are the lighter versions of it.
Tones
A tone is a mixture of a certain color with grey. This means, that shades of the color Apricot are the duller versions of it.