Halloween color palettes

Where Halloween palettes work

• Haunted attraction, party and costume event pages
• Horror game menus, trailers and fan sites
• Seasonal shop banners and limited product drops

Three Halloween moods in the grid

The 83 Halloween palettes are dark overall, with average lightness around 46% and nearly a quarter of swatches very dark. Green is almost absent (4 of 332 swatches), so if you want slime or potion green you will be adding it yourself. What the collection does offer splits into three moods.

• Pumpkin and black: #000000, #F58840, #B85252, #EADEDE, or #52006A, #CD113B, #FF7600, #FFA900.
• Blood and wine: #4C0027, #570530, #750550, #980F5A, or #000000, #3D0000, #950101, #FF0000.
• Witching purple: #371B58, #4C3575, #5B4B8A, #7858A6, or #1A1A40, #270082, #7A0BC0, #FA58B6.

Orange can be text. Dark red cannot.

On a black or near-black page, orange is the most useful accent. #FF7600 is 7.84:1 on black and 6.57:1 on #191919, and #F58840 is 8.48:1 on black, so both can be used for headings and links. For an orange button, put black text on it (7.84:1); white is only 2.68:1.

Reds behave very differently. Blood red #990000 is 2.35:1 on black, which fails even the 3:1 minimum for icons and borders. Cherry #CD113B on #191919 is 3.13:1, and brick #C84B31 is 3.77:1: usable for large display type and decoration, not for paragraphs. For body text on a dark Halloween page, a bone or parchment tone like #ECDBBA keeps the warm mood and still measures 12.90:1 on #191919.

Purples need the same care. #7858A6 on #1A1A40 is 2.96:1, just short of 3:1, while pink #FA58B6 on the same background is 5.64:1.

Flicker, fog and motion

Halloween pages are where flickering lights and drifting fog get added, and both have rules. WCAG 2.3.1 says content should not flash more than three times in any one-second period, so keep a candle flicker slow and low in contrast. Wrap looping effects in a prefers-reduced-motion check, and never place body text over animated fog, where its contrast changes from frame to frame.

Pairing the colors

Start from charcoal or dark purple rather than pure black, use orange for headings and actions, and keep blood reds and purples for large shapes. A bone or parchment tone like #ECDBBA is a warmer alternative to white for body text.

Contrast and readability

Dark reds disappear on black: #990000 is 2.35:1. Orange is the reliable accent at 7.84:1 for #FF7600 on black, but put black text on orange buttons, since white on #FF7600 is only 2.68:1.

Questions

What colors are Halloween colors?

Orange and black are the core pair, with deep purple, blood red and bone white as the usual additions and acid green as an occasional accent. Typical values from this page: #FF7600 pumpkin, #191919 near-black, #52006A purple, #950101 red and #ECDBBA bone.

How do I keep a Halloween page readable on a black background?

Use a light warm neutral for body text, orange for headings and links, and keep dark reds and purples for large shapes and illustration. Check every accent against the actual background value, since many Halloween reds and purples fall below 3:1 on black.