Colour to colour

Charcoal to Cadet Blue gradient

Charcoal (#36454f) into Cadet Blue (#5f9ea0) — 39° 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 oklab — both colours are in the palette and the hue gap is small enough that the straight line stays clean.

Charcoal → Cadet Blue
white text · worst 3.05:1 · AA large
white 3.05 AA largeblack 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 3.05 AA largeblack 2.12 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #36454f 0%, #5f9ea0 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 3.05 AA largeblack 2.12 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #36454f 0%, #5f9ea0 100%)

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

sRGB57%
OKLab57%
OKLCH57%

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 3.05 AA largeblack 2.12 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #36454f 0%, #374650 8.28%, #384a53 16.03%, #3b4f58 23.35%, #3e565e 30.32%, #425e66 37.03%, #46676e 43.56%, #4b7076 50%, #4f7a7f 56.44%, #538387 62.97%, #578b8f 69.68%, #5a9396 76.65%, #5d999b 83.97%, #5e9d9f 91.72%, #5f9ea0 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 3.35 AA largeblack 3.07 AA largebanding high
css
background-color: #4b7076;
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 92.46% 86.15%, rgba(95, 158, 160, 0.889) 0%, rgba(95, 158, 160, 0) 47.42%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 41.01% 68.6%, rgba(54, 69, 79, 0.847) 0%, rgba(54, 69, 79, 0) 45.64%);
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 92.46% 86.15%, oklch(from #5f9ea0 l c h / 0.8891) 0%, rgb(from #5f9ea0 r g b / 0) 47.42%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 41.01% 68.6%, oklch(from #36454f l c h / 0.8466) 0%, rgb(from #36454f r g b / 0) 45.64%);

Report

  • white ink: worst 3.05:1 at 100% (AA-large only); black ink: worst 2.12:1 at 0% (fails AA) → use white text.
  • Body text fails AA everywhere on this gradient; large text (≥24px / 19px bold) is fine. Add a scrim or lower the chroma for body copy.
  • Banding medium: ~16px bands at 1440px — add grain 33 (≈2% soft-light noise) or shorten the ramp.

Export

css
.gradient {
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg, #36454f 0%, #394b54 7.14%, #3c515a 14.29%, #3f5760 21.43%, #425d65 28.57%, #45636b 35.71%, #486a71 42.86%, #4b7076 50%, #4e767c 57.14%, #517d82 64.29%, #538388 71.43%, #568a8e 78.57%, #599194 85.71%, #5c979a 92.86%, #5f9ea0 100%);
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #36454f 0%, #5f9ea0 100%);
}
tailwind v4
bg-linear-to-br/oklab from-[#36454f] to-[#5f9ea0]
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="#394b54"/><stop offset="14.29%" stop-color="#3c515a"/><stop offset="21.43%" stop-color="#3f5760"/><stop offset="28.57%" stop-color="#425d65"/><stop offset="35.71%" stop-color="#45636b"/><stop offset="42.86%" stop-color="#486a71"/><stop offset="50%" stop-color="#4b7076"/><stop offset="57.14%" stop-color="#4e767c"/><stop offset="64.29%" stop-color="#517d82"/><stop offset="71.43%" stop-color="#538388"/><stop offset="78.57%" stop-color="#568a8e"/><stop offset="85.71%" stop-color="#599194"/><stop offset="92.86%" stop-color="#5c979a"/><stop offset="100%" stop-color="#5f9ea0"/></linearGradient></defs><rect width="1440" height="600" fill="url(#bs-gradient)"/></svg>
dtcg
{
  "charcoal-to-cadetblue": {
    "$type": "gradient",
    "$value": [
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.212,
            0.271,
            0.31
          ],
          "hex": "#36454f"
        },
        "position": 0
      },
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.373,
            0.62,
            0.627
          ],
          "hex": "#5f9ea0"
        },
        "position": 1
      }
    ],
    "$extensions": {
      "com.brandsweets": {
        "kind": "linear",
        "css": "linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #36454f 0%, #5f9ea0 100%)",
        "interpolation": "oklab",
        "angle": 135,
        "name": "charcoal-to-cadetblue",
        "contrast": {
          "white": {
            "ratio": 3.05,
            "at": 1,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": true
          },
          "black": {
            "ratio": 2.121,
            "at": 0,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": false
          },
          "suggestedInk": "#ffffff"
        }
      }
    },
    "$description": "Charcoal to Cadet Blue, interpolated in oklab."
  }
}

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 cadet blue 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