Sepia #704214: named shade, meaning and history

Sepia is a warm brown shade with a hint of red, named after the pigment once made from cuttlefish ink. It was widely used for writing and drawing, and is now linked with the brown tint of old photographs. The name comes from the Greek word for cuttlefish.

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Sepia is named after the cuttlefish, whose ink was used for pigment.
Artists in ancient Greece and Rome wrote and drew with sepia ink.
Sepia toning gives photographs a brown tint, often seen in old prints.
A process to concentrate sepia pigment was developed in Dresden in the 1700s.
Sepia was once a term for African American music in the United States.

What colour is Sepia?

Sepia is a brownish colour with a reddish cast, sitting between red and dark brown. Its tone is often described as rich and earthy. Sepia stands out from other browns because it was originally made from the ink of cuttlefish, which gives it a distinctive, slightly reddish hue. The colour is now often linked to the look of old photographs and drawings.

Where does Sepia come from?

The name 'sepia' comes from the Greek word for cuttlefish, which is also the source of the pigment's original material. The Latin form of the word was adopted into English. Artists and writers in ancient Greece and Rome used sepia ink, and it remained popular for drawing until the 1800s. In the late 1700s, a process was developed in Dresden to extract and concentrate sepia for use in paints.

How Sepia is defined

Originally, sepia pigment was obtained from the ink sacs of cuttlefish. In the late 18th century, a method was created to concentrate this ink for use in watercolour and oil painting. Today, sepia as a colour is usually produced synthetically, especially for digital and photographic effects.

Where Sepia is used

Sepia was a common ink for writing and drawing in ancient and classical times, and artists continued to use it until the 19th century. In photography, sepia toning is a chemical process that turns black-and-white prints a brownish colour, giving them an antique look. Modern cameras and software often include a sepia filter to imitate this effect.

What Sepia means

The sources do not link sepia with any particular symbolic meaning or emotion. In the United States in the 1940s, 'sepia music' was a term for music aimed at African American listeners, but this usage faded as 'rhythm and blues' became the standard term.

Brown around the world

What the brown family means from country to country.

🇩🇪 Germany

Brown is the colour of Nazism in German political speech, after the brown shirts of the party's stormtroopers. To call a view "brown" is to call it far right.

Politics and protest Danger and warning Shame Source: Sturmabteilung

🇫🇯 Fiji

Masi is bark cloth beaten from paper mulberry and printed in brown and black. It is worn at weddings and funerals and given in ceremonial exchanges.

Sacred and holy Weddings and marriage Source: Tapa cloth

🇬🇭 Ghana

Kuntunkuni is a dark brown mourning cloth of the Asante, dyed with tree bark. Adinkra cloth, stamped with symbols, was first made on such dark grounds for funerals.

Mourning and death Sadness Source: Adinkra symbols

🇮🇩 Indonesia

The batik of the Javanese courts at Yogyakarta and Surakarta is dyed in soga brown with indigo and cream. Some court patterns were once reserved for the royal family.

Royalty and power Pride Source: Batik

🇲🇱 Mali

Bogolanfini, or mud cloth, is cotton painted with fermented river mud in browns, black and white. Hunters wear it for protection, and women after childbirth.

Protection and healing Sacred and holy Source: Bògòlanfini

Shades and relatives of Sepia

Sepia is sometimes confused with other brown shades, but it is set apart by its reddish undertone and its origin in cuttlefish ink. In photography, sepia tone refers to a range of brownish hues used to give prints an aged appearance.

Colours that go with Sepia

ComplementaryIts opposite on the wheel

#704214 #144271

AnalogousIts neighbours

#704214 #711414 #717114

TriadicThree evenly spaced

#704214 #147142 #421471

Split complementaryEither side of its opposite

#704214 #147171 #141471

TintsLighter

#704214 #AD661F #DC8A38 #E0A871

ShadesDarker

#704214 #3D240B #110A03 #110A03

White text 8.47:1passes AAA

Black text 2.48:1fails

Harmonies are worked out from the value #704214. Contrast ratios follow the WCAG 2 formula.

Questions people ask about Sepia

What colour is sepia?

Sepia is a brown shade with a reddish tint, often described as rich and earthy.

Where does the name sepia come from?

The name comes from the Greek word for cuttlefish, which is the animal whose ink was used to make the original pigment.

How was sepia pigment originally made?

It was made from the ink sacs of cuttlefish, and later a method was developed to concentrate it for use in art.

Why are old photographs brownish?

Many old photographs were treated with sepia toning, a process that gives black-and-white prints a brown colour.

Was sepia used outside of art?

Yes, in the United States in the 1940s, 'sepia music' referred to music for African American audiences.

Good reading and sources

Where this page comes from

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Sepia (color)", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.

Sepia