Colour to colour · generated

Steel Blue to Maroon gradient

Steel Blue (#4682b4) into Maroon (#800000) — 143° 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 143° > 140° — interpolating in oklch (shorter hue) keeps the midpoint saturated.

Steel Blue → Maroon
white text · worst 4.11:1 · AA large
white 4.11 AA largeblack 1.92 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 4.10 AA largeblack 1.92 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklab, #4682b4 0%, #800000 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 4.11 AA largeblack 1.92 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #4682b4 0%, #800000 100%)

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

sRGB40%
OKLab30%
OKLCH78%

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 4.11 AA largeblack 1.92 failsbanding medium
css
linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #4682b4 0%, #4780b4 8.28%, #4c7cb4 16.03%, #5374b4 23.35%, #5d6ab0 30.32%, #685ea9 37.03%, #72519d 43.56%, #7b448c 50%, #813677 56.44%, #852960 62.97%, #861d48 69.68%, #851132 76.65%, #83071d 83.97%, #810109 91.72%, #800000 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 6.05 AAblack 2.82 failsbanding low
css
background-color: #745362;
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 79.73% 23.38%, rgba(128, 0, 0, 0.729) 0%, rgba(128, 0, 0, 0) 50.95%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 11.49% 69.75%, rgba(70, 130, 180, 0.845) 0%, rgba(70, 130, 180, 0) 58.09%);
background-image: radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 79.73% 23.38%, oklch(from #800000 l c h / 0.7287) 0%, rgb(from #800000 r g b / 0) 50.95%), radial-gradient(circle farthest-corner at 11.49% 69.75%, oklch(from #4682b4 l c h / 0.8448) 0%, rgb(from #4682b4 r g b / 0) 58.09%);

Report

  • white ink: worst 4.11:1 at 0% (AA-large only); black ink: worst 1.92:1 at 100% (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: ~8px bands at 1440px — add grain 16 (≈2% soft-light noise) or shorten the ramp.

Export

css
.gradient {
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg, #4682b4 0%, #4e7ab4 7.14%, #5671b3 14.29%, #5f68af 21.43%, #675faa 28.57%, #6f56a2 35.71%, #754d98 42.86%, #7b448c 50%, #7f3b7f 57.14%, #83326f 64.29%, #85285f 71.43%, #861f4d 78.57%, #851539 85.71%, #830923 92.86%, #800000 100%);
  background-image: linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #4682b4 0%, #800000 100%);
}
tailwind v4
bg-linear-to-br/oklch from-[#4682b4] to-[#800000]
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="#4682b4"/><stop offset="7.14%" stop-color="#4e7ab4"/><stop offset="14.29%" stop-color="#5671b3"/><stop offset="21.43%" stop-color="#5f68af"/><stop offset="28.57%" stop-color="#675faa"/><stop offset="35.71%" stop-color="#6f56a2"/><stop offset="42.86%" stop-color="#754d98"/><stop offset="50%" stop-color="#7b448c"/><stop offset="57.14%" stop-color="#7f3b7f"/><stop offset="64.29%" stop-color="#83326f"/><stop offset="71.43%" stop-color="#85285f"/><stop offset="78.57%" stop-color="#861f4d"/><stop offset="85.71%" stop-color="#851539"/><stop offset="92.86%" stop-color="#830923"/><stop offset="100%" stop-color="#800000"/></linearGradient></defs><rect width="1440" height="600" fill="url(#bs-gradient)"/></svg>
dtcg
{
  "steelblue-to-maroon": {
    "$type": "gradient",
    "$value": [
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.275,
            0.51,
            0.706
          ],
          "hex": "#4682b4"
        },
        "position": 0
      },
      {
        "color": {
          "colorSpace": "srgb",
          "components": [
            0.502,
            0,
            0
          ],
          "hex": "#800000"
        },
        "position": 1
      }
    ],
    "$extensions": {
      "com.brandsweets": {
        "kind": "linear",
        "css": "linear-gradient(135deg in oklch shorter hue, #4682b4 0%, #800000 100%)",
        "interpolation": "oklch",
        "hue": "shorter",
        "angle": 135,
        "name": "steelblue-to-maroon",
        "contrast": {
          "white": {
            "ratio": 4.108,
            "at": 0,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": true
          },
          "black": {
            "ratio": 1.918,
            "at": 1,
            "passesAA": false,
            "passesAALarge": false
          },
          "suggestedInk": "#ffffff"
        }
      }
    },
    "$description": "Steel Blue to Maroon, interpolated in oklch."
  }
}

More from Steel Blue

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 steel blue to maroon 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