Vintage Color Palette

Vintage palettes look like old print and fabric: dusty rose, sage, faded mustard and slate blue on parchment. The trick is low chroma and a warm, slightly yellowed light color.

Colors

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Lightest color becomes the background, darkest the text, the most saturated one the button.

NorthwindPricing · Docs · Blog

Ship the release notes your users actually read.

Body text in your darkest color on your lightest: 9.08:1 AA pass

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Surface card with a secondary accent

Export

CSS custom properties, Tailwind v4 @theme (in OKLCH), Tailwind v3 config, JSON or SCSS.

:root {
  --color-dark-slate-gray: #3E3A36;
  --color-gray: #7A8B7F;
  --color-dark-khaki: #C9A66B;
  --color-tan: #D8B4A0;
  --color-antique-white: #EFE6D2;
}

Contrast between every pair

WCAG 2.2: 4.5:1 for body text (AA), 3:1 for large text and UI parts, 7:1 for AAA.

Contrast ratio of every text color (rows) on every background (columns)
Text / background	#3E3A36	#7A8B7F	#C9A66B	#D8B4A0	#EFE6D2
#3E3A36		Aa3.12:1Large	Aa4.91:1AA	Aa5.87:1AA	Aa9.08:1AAA
#7A8B7F	Aa3.12:1Large		Aa1.57:1Fail	Aa1.88:1Fail	Aa2.90:1Fail
#C9A66B	Aa4.91:1AA	Aa1.57:1Fail		Aa1.19:1Fail	Aa1.84:1Fail
#D8B4A0	Aa5.87:1AA	Aa1.88:1Fail	Aa1.19:1Fail		Aa1.54:1Fail
#EFE6D2	Aa9.08:1AAA	Aa2.90:1Fail	Aa1.84:1Fail	Aa1.54:1Fail

Get an AI critique of this palette

The contrast numbers are calculated exactly in your browser and passed to the AI, so its advice starts from real ratios.

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Hand-picked vintage palettes

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Tips for vintage palettes

Keep chroma low across the board; one slightly stronger color is plenty.
Parchment backgrounds (#EFE6D2-ish) do more for the look than any accent.
Check contrast: muted mid-tones often fail as text.

Want one written for your project? Describe it on the AI palette generator, then check it with the accessible palette checker.

Frequently asked questions

What colors make a vintage color palette?

Muted, slightly warm colors: dusty rose, sage green, mustard, slate or dusty blue, brown and parchment.

How do I make a palette look vintage?

Reduce saturation, shift colors slightly warm, and replace white with a cream or parchment tone.