Tawny
A light brown to brownish-orange shade named for tanned leather
Tawny is a colour that sits between light brown and brownish-orange, often linked to the look of tanned leather. The name comes from the process of tanning hides with oak bark. Tawny is not a standard web colour, but it appears in many colour lists and is close to burnt orange or tan.
Share on WhatsAppOpen in the lab
- Tawny is the colour of tanned leather
- Its hex code is often given as #CD5700
- Tawny is not a standard web colour
- The word comes from tanning hides with oak bark
What colour is Tawny?
Tawny is a colour found between light brown and brownish-orange. It is often described as the shade of tanned leather, which is a pale brown with a hint of orange. Tawny is used as a descriptive term for animals and objects with this warm, earthy tone, such as the tawny owl. It is distinct from pure brown or orange, sitting somewhere in between.
Where does Tawny come from?
The word 'tawny' comes from Anglo-Norman and Old French roots meaning 'tan-coloured', referring to the brownish-yellow of tanned leather. The process of tanning, which gives leather its colour, used crushed oak bark. The Latin word 'tannum' for oak bark is likely from a Celtic source. Tawny has been used to describe colours in English for centuries, but the exact date of first use is not given.
How Tawny is defined
Tawny as a colour is defined by its position between brown and orange. It is not tied to a single pigment or dye, but rather to a range of shades that resemble tanned leather. In digital terms, it is often represented by the hex code #CD5700, though other similar codes exist in different colour systems.
Where Tawny is used
Tawny appears in various colour lists and systems, including proprietary ones like Pantone, where it is used for shades such as Tawny Olive and Tawny Port. It is not a standard web colour, so it is rarely used in digital design standards. The term is also used in the names of animals and in heraldry, where 'tenné' is the equivalent shade.
Brown around the world
What the brown family means from country to country.
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 protestDanger and warningShameSource: SturmabteilungMasi 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 holyWeddings and marriageSource: Tapa clothKuntunkuni 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 deathSadnessSource: Adinkra symbolsThe 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 powerPrideSource: BatikBogolanfini, 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 healingSacred and holySource: BògòlanfiniShades and relatives of Tawny
Tawny is closely related to colours like tan, fulvous, camel, and burnt orange. Some lists consider tan and tawny to be synonyms, while others treat them as distinct shades. Variants include tawny-olive, ochraceous-tawny, and lion tawny. In heraldry, the shade is called tenné.
Colours that go with Tawny
Harmonies are worked out from the value #CD5700. Contrast ratios follow the WCAG 2 formula.
Questions people ask about Tawny
What colour is tawny?
Tawny is a light brown to brownish-orange shade, often compared to the colour of tanned leather.
Where does the name 'tawny' come from?
The name comes from Anglo-Norman and Old French words for 'tan-coloured', linked to the colour of leather tanned with oak bark.
Is tawny the same as tan?
Some sources treat tan and tawny as synonyms, while others see them as different shades. Both are light brown colours.
Is tawny a standard web colour?
No, tawny is not included in standard web colour lists for HTML, CSS, or SVG.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Tawny (colour)", 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.
More of the brown family
All of brown
#C3B091
Khaki
A light tan with a yellowish tinge, once made for military uniformsNamed shade · 🇮🇳 India +2
#F5F5DC
Beige
A pale, warm colour named after natural, undyed woolNamed shade · 🇫🇷 France +2
#704214
Sepia
A reddish-brown colour named for the ink of the cuttlefishNamed shade
#3D2B1F
Bistre
A dark brown pigment and colour made from soot, once used in Old Master drawingsPigment
#B87333
Copper
A reddish brown shade named for the metal it matchesNamed shade
#483C32
Taupe
A grey-brown shade named after the colour of a mole’s furNamed shade
#4A412A
Pantone 448 C
A dull brown shade chosen to discourage smoking by making packaging unattractiveStandard colour · 🇦🇺 Australia +5
#664228
Van Dyck brown
A deep, earthy brown once made from German peat and soilPigment · 🇩🇪 Germany