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Halloween color palette
Short answer
A Halloween palette from real photographs: the three Wikimedia Commons photos we used (Cucurbita pepo Halloween pumpkin - Jack o'; Jack-o'-lantern in Calcata; Jack o lantern pumpkin in leaves) gave these six colors, most common first: #0F0806 (39%), #4F2618 (16%), #846A53 (15%), #A2380D (12%), #E0CAAB (10%), #EFBA2D (8%).
Nothing is uploaded. The picture is shrunk to 320 pixels wide in your browser and the colors are found there.
Key takeaways
- The Halloween palette from 3 photographs is #0F0806, #4F2618, #846A53, #A2380D, #E0CAAB, #EFBA2D.
- The most common color, #0F0806 (39% of the pixels), is 3.2 CIEDE2000 units from the CSS color black.
- The closest two colors of the palette are 18.0 apart (about 1 is a just noticeable difference); for protanopia 14.0, deuteranopia 13.3, tritanopia 11.1.
- Black text on #0F0806 has a contrast of 1.1:1 and white text 19.9:1; white text passes AA.
- Each photograph alone gave five colors: the lists are in the table, with the photographer and license.
- The complement of #0F0806 is #060D0F; the analogous pair is #0F0608 and #0F0C06.
Measured: the Halloween palette
The most common is #0F0806, which is close to the CSS color black (#000000). All six are easy to tell apart; under deuteranopia the closest pair is 13.3 apart.
We searched Wikimedia Commons for photographs of the theme and kept photographs under Creative Commons or public domain licenses. For this theme we took the first three results. The tool's own palette code (k-means in CIELAB, no random numbers) found five colors in each photograph. The six colors in the table below come from all pixels of the three photographs.
| Color | Share | Nearest CSS name | Contrast on white | Contrast on black |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #0F0806 | 39.1% | near black | 19.85:1 | 1.06:1 |
| #4F2618 | 16.4% | near maroon | 12.94:1 | 1.62:1 |
| #846A53 | 14.6% | near sienna | 5.04:1 | 4.17:1 |
| #A2380D | 12.2% | near sienna | 6.76:1 | 3.11:1 |
| #E0CAAB | 10.1% | near wheat | 1.59:1 | 13.21:1 |
| #EFBA2D | 7.6% | near goldenrod | 1.79:1 | 11.73:1 |
Halloween appears here as near black, near maroon, near sienna, near sienna, near wheat, near goldenrod. The photo palette is a starting point: colors from a photograph are rarely pure, and the table shows how each performs as text on white and black.
Measured: the photographs
| Photograph | Photographer, license | Search | Five colors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cucurbita pepo Halloween pumpkin - Jack o' | Carly Lesser & Art Drauglis from Washington, DC, CC BY-SA 2.0 | halloween pumpkins jack-o-lantern | #1C130E 40%, #6F543F 21%, #CFB99E 18%, #CD641D 11%, #F9CD3F 11% |
| Jack-o'-lantern in Calcata | Albarubescens, CC BY-SA 4.0 | halloween pumpkins jack-o-lantern | #0A0201 74%, #620301 10%, #B52108 9%, #DDB712 7%, #FAF9E2 0% |
| Jack o lantern pumpkin in leaves | Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain | halloween pumpkins jack-o-lantern | #3C2218 34%, #81624E 27%, #87410F 18%, #E2CCAC 16%, #E19831 5% |
The photographs are credited with their Wikimedia Commons license. The extracted lists are the exact tool output.
Matches for the most common color, #0F0806
| Harmony | Colors | Closest pair, typical vision | Protanopia | Deuteranopia | Tritanopia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Complementary | #0F0806, #060D0F | 5.7 | 2.5 | 3.4 | 8.5 |
| Analogous | #0F0608, #0F0806, #0F0C06 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 |
| Triadic | #0F0806, #060F08, #08060F | 4.6 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 4.1 |
| Split complementary | #0F0806, #060F0D, #06080F | 4.6 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 2.9 |
| Tetradic (rectangle) | #0F0806, #0D0F06, #060D0F, #08060F | 4.6 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 1.8 |
| Square | #0F0806, #090F06, #060D0F, #0C060F | 4.5 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 1.7 |
Under protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia the colors are simulated with the Machado model at full severity; a closest pair below about 10 is hard to tell apart.
The colors as values
| Notation | Value |
|---|---|
| Hex | #0F0806 |
| RGB | rgb(15, 8, 6) |
| HSL | hsl(13.3, 42.9%, 4.1%) |
| CMYK (simple conversion) | 0%, 47%, 60%, 94% |
| CIELAB (D65) | 2.6, 1.7, 1.5 |
| Nearest CSS color name | black #000000 (CIEDE2000 distance 3.2) |
| Contrast on white | 19.85:1 |
| Contrast on black | 1.06:1 |
Tints, shades and accessible text
| Step | Tint (toward white) | Contrast on white | Shade (toward black) | Contrast on white |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | #27211F | 15.87:1 | #0E0705 | 19.98:1 |
| 20% | #3F3938 | 11.33:1 | #0C0605 | 20.12:1 |
| 30% | #575251 | 7.69:1 | #0B0604 | 20.15:1 |
| 40% | #6F6B6A | 5.27:1 | #090504 | 20.29:1 |
| 50% | #878483 | 3.71:1 | #080403 | 20.41:1 |
| 60% | #9F9C9B | 2.73:1 | #060302 | 20.56:1 |
| 70% | #B7B5B4 | 2.04:1 | #050202 | 20.67:1 |
| 80% | #CFCECD | 1.57:1 | #030201 | 20.73:1 |
| 90% | #E7E6E6 | 1.25:1 | #020101 | 20.85:1 |
4 tints and 9 shades reach 4.5:1 against white. The WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 asks for at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text; criterion 1.4.6 asks for 7:1 for the enhanced level.
Use it in CSS
:root { --halloween-1: #0f0806; --halloween-2: #4f2618; --halloween-3: #846a53; --halloween-4: #a2380d; --halloween-5: #e0caab; --halloween-6: #efba2d; }
The complement and analogous colors of #0F0806: #060D0F, #0F0608, #0F0C06.
Free tools:Color palette generatorPalette from an imageImage to textCompress an image
Check the contrast before you use it for text
- Halloween #0F0806 on white: 19.85:1; on black: 1.06:1.
- The darkest shade in the table, #020101, reaches 20.85:1 on white.
- Large text (at least 18 point, or 14 point bold) needs 3:1; normal text needs 4.5:1; the enhanced level needs 7:1.
- Do not use color as the only way to tell things apart: about 1 in 12 men have a color vision deficiency.
How the numbers were made
The hex value of each color comes from the photographs. Harmonies rotate the hue in HSL and keep saturation and lightness. Contrast follows the WCAG 2 definition with relative luminance. Color differences use CIEDE2000, which Wikipedia notes is designed so that a difference of 1.0 stands for a just noticeable difference. Color blindness is simulated with the matrices of Machado, Oliveira and Fernandes (2009) at severity 1.0. Palette extraction: pixels are grouped into 32 levels per channel and clustered with k-means in CIELAB; the same picture always gives the same palette. The accuracy test on pictures of known colors is on the palette generator page.
Questions people ask
What are good colors for a Halloween palette?
From our three photographs: #0F0806, #4F2618, #846A53, #A2380D, #E0CAAB, #EFBA2D.
Where do these colors come from?
From 3 Wikimedia Commons photographs under Creative Commons or public domain licenses; the table lists each one.
Is #0F0806 accessible for text?
On white it has 19.85:1 and on black 1.06:1. The WCAG AA minimum for normal text is 4.5:1, so white text on #0F0806 passes.
Can people with color blindness tell the Halloween palette apart?
For the six colors of the photo palette, the closest pair is 18.0 apart for typical vision and 13.3 for deuteranopia (CIEDE2000; below about 10 is hard).
How was the palette made?
The tool found the dominant colors of the photographs with k-means clustering in CIELAB. It runs in your browser; you can do the same with your own picture on the palette from image page.
Can I use these colors commercially?
Colors themselves are not licensed. The photographs used to find them keep their Creative Commons licenses, shown in the table.
Can I get a palette from my own photo?
Yes. Use the palette from an image tool; nothing is uploaded.
How many colors should a palette have?
Many designs use five: one dominant, one or two supporting, one accent and a neutral. The tool lets you choose 3 to 10 when you extract from a picture.
What is the difference between tints and shades?
A tint mixes the color with white and a shade mixes it with black. The table shows nine of each in steps of 10%.
Related
Sources and how we checked
- W3C: Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.3, Contrast (Minimum) (read 2026-10-10)
- W3C: Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.6, Contrast (Enhanced) (read 2026-10-10)
- Wikipedia: Color scheme (read 2026-10-10)
- Wikipedia: Color difference (CIEDE2000) (read 2026-10-10)
- Machado, Oliveira and Fernandes: A physiologically-based model for simulation of color vision deficiency (2009) (read 2026-10-10)
- Wikimedia Commons (the photographs, under the licenses shown) (read 2026-10-10)
Reviewed October 10, 2026. The palettes were found with the tool's own code from Creative Commons photographs; contrast, harmonies and color differences are computed. The files and results are in data/seo/hub/evidence/2026-10-10/palette.