Colour to colour

Salmon to Amber gradient

Salmon (#fa8072) into Amber (#ffbf00) — 56° 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.

Salmon → Amber
black text · worst 8.39:1 · AA
white 1.65 failsblack 8.39 AAbanding high

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 1.65 failsblack 8.39 AAbanding high
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #fa8072 0%, #ffbf00 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 1.65 failsblack 8.39 AAbanding high
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #fa8072 0%, #ffbf00 100%)

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

sRGB92%
OKLab87%
OKLCH94%

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 1.65 failsblack 8.39 AAbanding high
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #fa8072 0%, #fa8171 8.28%, #fa846f 16.03%, #fb886c 23.35%, #fb8d68 30.32%, #fc9362 37.03%, #fd9a5c 43.56%, #fda154 50%, #fea74b 56.44%, #feae41 62.97%, #ffb336 69.68%, #ffb829 76.65%, #ffbc1a 83.97%, #ffbe09 91.72%, #ffbf00 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 1.86 failsblack 9.60 AAbanding high
css
background-color: #fda154;
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 61.99% 96.88%, rgba(255, 191, 0, 0.73) 0%, rgba(255, 191, 0, 0) 50.51%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 25.86% 57.29%, rgba(250, 128, 114, 0.768) 0%, rgba(250, 128, 114, 0) 46.33%);
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 61.99% 96.88%, oklch(from #ffbf00 l c h / 0.7304) 0%, rgb(from #ffbf00 r g b / 0) 50.51%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 25.86% 57.29%, oklch(from #fa8072 l c h / 0.7683) 0%, rgb(from #fa8072 r g b / 0) 46.33%);

Report

  • white ink: worst 1.65:1 at 99% (fails AA); black ink: worst 8.39:1 at 0% (AA) → use black text.
  • Banding high: ~13px bands at 1440px — add grain 26 (≈2% soft-light noise) or shorten the ramp.

Export

css
.gradient {
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg, #fa8072 0%, #fb856f 7.14%, #fb8a6b 14.29%, #fc8e67 21.43%, #fc9363 28.57%, #fc985e 35.71%, #fd9c59 42.86%, #fda154 50%, #fea54e 57.14%, #feaa48 64.29%, #feae41 71.43%, #feb238 78.57%, #ffb72d 85.71%, #ffbb1e 92.86%, #ffbf00 100%);
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #fa8072 0%, #ffbf00 100%);
}
tailwind v4
bg-linear-to-br/oklab from-[#fa8072] to-[#ffbf00]
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="#fa8072"/><stop offset="7.14%" stop-color="#fb856f"/><stop offset="14.29%" stop-color="#fb8a6b"/><stop offset="21.43%" stop-color="#fc8e67"/><stop offset="28.57%" stop-color="#fc9363"/><stop offset="35.71%" stop-color="#fc985e"/><stop offset="42.86%" stop-color="#fd9c59"/><stop offset="50%" stop-color="#fda154"/><stop offset="57.14%" stop-color="#fea54e"/><stop offset="64.29%" stop-color="#feaa48"/><stop offset="71.43%" stop-color="#feae41"/><stop offset="78.57%" stop-color="#feb238"/><stop offset="85.71%" stop-color="#ffb72d"/><stop offset="92.86%" stop-color="#ffbb1e"/><stop offset="100%" stop-color="#ffbf00"/></linearGradient></defs><rect width="1440" height="600" fill="url(#bs-gradient)"/></svg>
dtcg
{
  "salmon-to-amber": {
    "$type": "gradient",
    "$value": [
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.98,
            0.502,
            0.447
          ],
          "hex": "#fa8072"
        },
        "position": 0
      },
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            1,
            0.749,
            0
          ],
          "hex": "#ffbf00"
        },
        "position": 1
      }
    ],
    "$extensions": {
      "com.brandsweets": {
        "kind": "linear",
        "css": "linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #fa8072 0%, #ffbf00 100%)",
        "interpolation": "oklab",
        "angle": 135,
        "name": "salmon-to-amber",
        "contrast": {
          "white": {
            "ratio": 1.653,
            "at": 0.9927,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": false
          },
          "black": {
            "ratio": 8.395,
            "at": 0,
            "passesAA": true,
            "passesAALarge": true
          },
          "suggestedInk": "#000000"
        }
      }
    },
    "$description": "Salmon to Amber, interpolated in oklab."
  }
}

More from Salmon

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 salmon to amber 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