Here are some ways to use apricot in your designs:

• Grab attention. While not as visually overwhelming as red, apricot is a great color choice to guide a user’s eye to error messages or important CTAs while maintaining a soft and inviting interface.
• Offer visual feedback. For UI elements that respond to user interaction, like toggle buttons, sliders, and checkboxes, use apricot to represent active states. This signals to users that the feature is turned “on” or the button is selected.
• Create a friendly atmosphere. Apricot’s warm and cheerful deposition works well for many industries looking to create an inviting user interface, like creative, educational, or health apps.

Keep in mind that color and its meaning can change from culture to culture—and at any given time. If you are designing for a global audience, research color considerations for your specific regions.

For variations within the same warm spectrum as apricot, consider:

• Peach (#FFD3AC) appears a bit lighter, sharing the same yellow-orange qualities.
• Coral (#FF8559) is more vibrant but offers a similar inviting feel.
• Light orange (#FFDBBB) shares a similar warmth and energy with a lighter appearance.
• Pastel orange (#FFC067) has more of an orange influence with a similar saturation level as apricot.

To complement apricot, consider pairing it with:

• Light blue (#90D5FF) is cool, complementing apricot’s warmth for a fresh and vibrant look.
• Navy blue (#000080) creates a nautical color palette reminiscent of a summer vacation on the coast.
• Mint blue (#98FBCB) has cool and refreshing tones that provide a lively contrast next to apricot.
• Ivory (#FFFFE3) creates a neutral color palette that allows apricot’s vibrancy to pop.

Other colors worth considering include brown to add to apricot’s warmth, lavender for a soft and whimsical combination, or white for a fresh and airy vibe.

While apricot is soft, it may clash with:

• Dark yellow (#BA8E23) may create a muddy, bland color combination when paired with apricot.
• Hot pink (#FF46A2) is vibrant and highly saturated, which may clash with apricot’s soft qualities.
• Vermilion (#E73121) may look too intense and overpower apricot’s subdued appearance.
• Bright orange (#FF991C) shares a similar hue that may create little visual interest next to apricot.

Apricot symbolizes optimism, energy, and happiness. Linked to the fruit, it also suggests sweetness, freshness, and vitality.

In color psychology, apricot’s warm and inviting qualities stimulate feelings of hope and excitement. Its playful energy creates a sense of youthfulness and creativity.

In UI design, apricot creates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Use it as a dominant color to bring energy and playfulness to user interfaces or as an accent shade to add a soft and subtle infusion of warmth.

The word “apricot” made its way into the English language during the 16th century, derived from the Arabic word “al-birquq.” Apricot was first recorded as a color name to describe the shade of the fruit in 1851 during the rise of synthetic dyes. In 1998, Crayola included apricot as a permanent color in its range of orange crayons.

Today, apricot is a popular choice in fashion, interior design, and UI design to convey warmth and add a bit of playfulness. It’s also a popular seasonal color, used to evoke the freshness of spring and summer and the warm energy of fall.

Color simulations

The hexadecimal color #FFB27F, known as apricot, has RGB values of R:255, G:178, B:127 and CMYK values of C:0, M:0.3, Y:0.5, K:0.