paletta

PALETTE GALLERY

Autumn color palette

Autumn palettes are warm but darker and more saturated than a general warm palette, closer to turning leaves than to summer heat. This set holds maple red and pumpkin as the primary range, with gold as a lighter accent and chestnut ink for text.

Updated 2026-07-15
  • MaplePrimary
    #A13D2B
  • PumpkinAccent
    #D9781E
  • GoldHighlight
    #C9A227
  • Mustard BrownAccent 2
    #7A5C2E
  • Chestnut InkText
    #4B2E1E
  • CreamBackground
    #FDF3E3

Where this palette works

  • Seasonal marketing and limited-time campaigns

    Maple and pumpkin are unambiguous seasonal cues that need no supporting copy to read as autumn.

  • Coffee, harvest, and food-adjacent brands

    The palette overlaps with the warm set but skews darker, which reads as roasted rather than fresh.

  • Editorial features and long-form seasonal content

    Chestnut ink on cream is comfortable for extended reading, unlike a fully saturated seasonal palette.

Accessible pairings

Chestnut ink carries body text at AAA against cream. Maple and mustard brown both clear AA against cream directly, so either can serve as a secondary text color for captions or metadata without falling back to pure black.

Aa
Chestnut ink on cream
Contrast 11.18 : 1AAA
Aa
Maple on cream
Contrast 5.93 : 1AA
Aa
Mustard brown on cream
Contrast 5.62 : 1AA
EXPORT

Use these tokens

Copy as CSS custom properties or a Tailwind v4 @theme block.

:root {
  --palette-primary: #A13D2B; /* Maple */
  --palette-accent: #D9781E; /* Pumpkin */
  --palette-highlight: #C9A227; /* Gold */
  --palette-accent-2: #7A5C2E; /* Mustard Brown */
  --palette-text: #4B2E1E; /* Chestnut Ink */
  --palette-background: #FDF3E3; /* Cream */
}

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Autumn palettes skew darker and more desaturated toward brown, closer to Maple (#A13D2B) and Chestnut than to a brighter red-orange. A general warm palette can include lighter, more saturated tones without reading as seasonal.

Gold (#C9A227) reaches only 2.42:1 against white, well under AA, so pair it against Chestnut Ink (5.08:1, AA) or use it as a non-text accent like an icon or border rather than as body text on a light background.

Chestnut Ink on Cream, at 11.18:1. It clears AAA with the widest margin of any pair in this set and keeps the palette's warm undertone instead of dropping to a neutral gray or black.

Related palettes

Build on this palette

Generate a full shade scale and export to Tailwind, shadcn, or Figma Variables.