#28280E is a muted, temperate green. On the Color Lab it reads quietly premium, restrained and easy to live with. It is too dark to lead as a primary accent and reproduces cleanly in print.
Not just a swatch — here's how #28280E works with other colors. Named schemes with #28280E in its natural role, and a note on why the supporting colors balance it.
Bistre plays the worn-leather lead, deepened by saddle brown and an oxblood anchor, softened by aged cream and cooled by a muted forest green.
This palette keeps Bistre as the dominant warm neutral, balanced by muted terracotta and olive earth tones and grounded by a deep espresso anchor.
Bistre sets a calm, sun-bleached base here, wrapped in bone and paper off-whites and a soft greige, with a single ink accent for wabi-sabi restraint.
Bistre carries the depth in this luxury scheme, offset by a brass accent and near-black and held together by a deep neutral and an off-white surface.
Bistre is the single accent in this high-contrast editorial system — set on near-white paper against near-black ink, with a warm grey and a desaturated tint of Bistre carrying the quiet middle.
How #28280E actually behaves in design work — read from its OKLCH lightness, chroma and hue, not just its raw numbers. Ten signals to help you decide where this color earns its place.
Not a swatch to memorise — a color to build with. Here is #28280E at work across the surfaces designers actually ship.
:root {
--color-base: #28280E;
--color-base-rgb: 40 40 14;
--color-base-oklch: oklch(27.0% 0.042 108.9);
--color-50: #FBFBF3;
--color-100: #F5F5E0;
--color-200: #EAEAC3;
--color-300: #D7D799;
--color-400: #C1C171;
--color-500: #A5A550;
--color-600: #7F7F43;
--color-700: #5B5B34;
--color-800: #3C3C25;
--color-900: #252518;
--color-on-base: #FFFFFF;
}
// tailwind.config.js
colors: {
bistre: {
50: '#FBFBF3',
100: '#F5F5E0',
200: '#EAEAC3',
300: '#D7D799',
400: '#C1C171',
500: '#A5A550',
600: '#7F7F43',
700: '#5B5B34',
800: '#3C3C25',
900: '#252518',
},
}
$base: #28280E; $base-ink: #FFFFFF; $base-50: #FBFBF3; $base-100: #F5F5E0; $base-200: #EAEAC3; $base-300: #D7D799; $base-400: #C1C171; $base-500: #A5A550; $base-600: #7F7F43; $base-700: #5B5B34; $base-800: #3C3C25; $base-900: #252518; $base-hover: #21210C; $base-subtle: #D4D4A2;
{
"color": {
"base": {
"value": "#28280E",
"type": "color"
},
"onBase": {
"value": "#FFFFFF",
"type": "color"
},
"scale": {
"50": {
"value": "#FBFBF3",
"type": "color"
},
"100": {
"value": "#F5F5E0",
"type": "color"
},
"200": {
"value": "#EAEAC3",
"type": "color"
},
"300": {
"value": "#D7D799",
"type": "color"
},
"400": {
"value": "#C1C171",
"type": "color"
},
"500": {
"value": "#A5A550",
"type": "color"
},
"600": {
"value": "#7F7F43",
"type": "color"
},
"700": {
"value": "#5B5B34",
"type": "color"
},
"800": {
"value": "#3C3C25",
"type": "color"
},
"900": {
"value": "#252518",
"type": "color"
}
}
}
}