Colour to colour

Charcoal to Burlywood gradient

Charcoal (#36454f) into Burlywood (#deb887) — 164° apart on the OKLCH hue wheel. Below: the same two stops interpolated in OKLab and in OKLCH, side by side, because the difference is real and most generators never let you see it; then an eased version and a mesh, each with the worst-case contrast for white and black text. The engine's own pick for this pair is oklch: ΔH 164° > 140° — interpolating in oklch (shorter hue) keeps the midpoint saturated.

Charcoal → Burlywood
black text · worst 2.12:1 · fails
white 1.86 failsblack 2.12 failsbanding medium

OKLab and OKLCH, side by side

Aa

A straight line through the a/b plane: the two hues meet halfway and desaturate a little at the midpoint. The safe default — it is what CSS and Tailwind default to.

white 1.86 failsblack 2.12 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #36454f 0%, #deb887 100%)
Aa

OKLCH (shorter hue)

Open in maker →

Chroma and hue interpolate separately, so the midpoint keeps its saturation and the hue travels the short way round the wheel — richer, and it can pass through hues neither colour has.

white 1.86 failsblack 2.12 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #36454f 0%, #deb887 100%)

And the sRGB line most tools draw, for comparison — the number is the chroma that survives at the dullest point.

sRGB10%
OKLab9%
OKLCH50%

Eased and mesh

Aa

Eased (soft)

Open in maker →

A cubic-bezier(.4, 0, .6, 1) mix ratio baked into 15 stops: the transition lingers on each colour and moves faster through the middle, which is what makes a gradient read as designed rather than default.

white 1.86 failsblack 2.12 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #36454f 0%, #374751 8.28%, #394c55 16.03%, #3c555c 23.35%, #416063 30.32%, #496c6a 37.03%, #557a6e 43.56%, #658871 50%, #7b9472 56.44%, #929f74 62.97%, #aaa876 69.68%, #bfaf7b 76.65%, #d0b480 83.97%, #dab785 91.72%, #deb887 100%)
Aa

Both colours as stacked radials over a base, laid out by a seeded Poisson-disc sampler — the same seed gives the same mesh forever. Exports as CSS, SVG and PNG.

white 2.82 failsblack 2.54 failsbanding high
css
background-color: #867d6c;
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 37.17% 2.99%, rgba(222, 184, 135, 0.809) 0%, rgba(222, 184, 135, 0) 45.19%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 65.12% 73.72%, rgba(54, 69, 79, 0.891) 0%, rgba(54, 69, 79, 0) 58.99%);
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 37.17% 2.99%, oklch(from #deb887 l c h / 0.8093) 0%, rgb(from #deb887 r g b / 0) 45.19%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 65.12% 73.72%, oklch(from #36454f l c h / 0.891) 0%, rgb(from #36454f r g b / 0) 58.99%);

Report

  • white ink: worst 1.86:1 at 100% (fails AA); black ink: worst 2.12:1 at 0% (fails AA) → use black text.
  • Neither ink passes AA at the worst point — treat as decorative or add a scrim (rgba(0,0,0,.35) typically lifts white ink past 4:1).
  • Banding medium: ~9px bands at 1440px — add grain 17 (≈2% soft-light noise) or shorten the ramp.

Export

css
.gradient {
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg, #36454f 0%, #3a4e57 7.14%, #3e585e 14.29%, #426264 21.43%, #486c69 28.57%, #50756d 35.71%, #5a7f6f 42.86%, #658871 50%, #739072 57.14%, #839873 64.29%, #94a074 71.43%, #a6a676 78.57%, #b8ad79 85.71%, #cbb37f 92.86%, #deb887 100%);
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #36454f 0%, #deb887 100%);
}
tailwind v4
bg-linear-to-br/oklch from-[#36454f] to-[#deb887]
svg
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1440" height="600" viewBox="0 0 1440 600"><defs><linearGradient id="bs-gradient" gradientUnits="userSpaceOnUse" x1="210" y1="-210" x2="1230" y2="810"><stop offset="0%" stop-color="#36454f"/><stop offset="7.14%" stop-color="#3a4e57"/><stop offset="14.29%" stop-color="#3e585e"/><stop offset="21.43%" stop-color="#426264"/><stop offset="28.57%" stop-color="#486c69"/><stop offset="35.71%" stop-color="#50756d"/><stop offset="42.86%" stop-color="#5a7f6f"/><stop offset="50%" stop-color="#658871"/><stop offset="57.14%" stop-color="#739072"/><stop offset="64.29%" stop-color="#839873"/><stop offset="71.43%" stop-color="#94a074"/><stop offset="78.57%" stop-color="#a6a676"/><stop offset="85.71%" stop-color="#b8ad79"/><stop offset="92.86%" stop-color="#cbb37f"/><stop offset="100%" stop-color="#deb887"/></linearGradient></defs><rect width="1440" height="600" fill="url(#bs-gradient)"/></svg>
dtcg
{
  "charcoal-to-burlywood": {
    "$type": "gradient",
    "$value": [
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.212,
            0.271,
            0.31
          ],
          "hex": "#36454f"
        },
        "position": 0
      },
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.871,
            0.722,
            0.529
          ],
          "hex": "#deb887"
        },
        "position": 1
      }
    ],
    "$extensions": {
      "com.brandsweets": {
        "kind": "linear",
        "css": "linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #36454f 0%, #deb887 100%)",
        "interpolation": "oklch",
        "hue": "shorter",
        "angle": 135,
        "name": "charcoal-to-burlywood",
        "contrast": {
          "white": {
            "ratio": 1.856,
            "at": 1,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": false
          },
          "black": {
            "ratio": 2.121,
            "at": 0,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": false
          },
          "suggestedInk": "#000000"
        }
      }
    },
    "$description": "Charcoal to Burlywood, interpolated in oklch."
  }
}

More from Charcoal

mcpConnect your agent to the gradient engine
live endpoint

Point any MCP client at the shared gradients endpoint and your agent gets the same engine as this page — make_gradient returns CSS with the interpolation space, Tailwind v4, SVG, a PNG URL, a DTCG token and the contrast report in one call; brand_gradients derives the whole contact sheet from a brand or a palette. Read-only, no key. Every gradient is a /gradients/new/… link: open it, refine, paste it back.

endpointhttps://mcp.brandsweets.com/gradients/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http brandsweets-gradients https://mcp.brandsweets.com/gradients/mcp
try this prompt

make a charcoal to burlywood hero gradient in oklch that passes AA for white text, with grain if it bands

Want the agent to remember your picks and write them into a living brand? Create a free BrandSweets workspace.

Machine-readable: gradients.md