Cotton Rag

What was measured

Closest neighbours

ΔE00 15

how alike two adjacent swatches look

Darkest to lightest

17.82:1

WCAG contrast across the set

Lightness covered

80 pts

of OKLCH lightness, 0–100

Under colour blindness

ΔE00 15

worst under deuteranopia

Every pair here survives protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia, so these five can stand for five different things.

Five colours are not an interface, so this is an offer rather than a token set. It does not clear WCAG AA on secondary text — stated here rather than left for you to discover.

/* Cotton Rag — Minimal writing surfaces where the only real colour is the text. */
:root {
  --palette-1: #11120d;
  --palette-2: #42433b;
  --palette-3: #7b7b71;
  --palette-4: #b9b8b0;
  --palette-5: #faf9f1;

  /* A suggested mapping, not a token set. It falls short of WCAG AA on secondary text — fix that before shipping. */
  --bg: #faf9f1;
  --text: #11120d;        /* 17.82:1 on --bg */
  --muted: #7b7b71;      /* 4.05:1 on --bg */
  --accent: #7b7b71;     /* 4.05:1 on --bg */
  --accent-text: #111111;
}

// tailwind.config — Cotton Rag
export default {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        cottonrag: {
        100: "#11120d",
        200: "#42433b",
        300: "#7b7b71",
        400: "#b9b8b0",
        500: "#faf9f1",
        },
      },
    },
  },
};

Use the Cotton Rag palette: #11120D, #42433B, #7B7B71, #B9B8B0, #FAF9F1.

It is for this: Minimal writing surfaces where the only real colour is the text.

Map it as ground #FAF9F1, body text #11120D, secondary text #7B7B71, and one accent #7B7B71 with #111111 printed on it. That mapping does not clear WCAG AA on secondary text — body 17.82:1, secondary 4.05:1, accent 4.05:1. Fix the named role against the ground before shipping; do not ship the pair as given.

Do not use it for: Charts, dashboards, anything with a legend.

Do not add a sixth colour, do not tint the greys toward a second hue, and do not carry meaning on hue alone — once colour vision is taken away the closest two of these sit only 15 apart on the CIEDE2000 scale, so pair every coloured state with a label or an icon.

How this palette was built · no hex was chosen by hand

The catalog states a recipe — ramp from hue 106 — and the five colours are derived from it in OKLCH, where a step of lightness is a step your eye agrees with rather than one the hex numbers agree with. That is why the numbers above are properties of this palette rather than claims about it.

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