IBM Carbon Color Palette — Accessibility & Quality Audit
IBM Carbon ships 12 color ramps with 12 shades each. Chromametry scores it 88.46 / 100, ranking #2 of 11 design systems in the palette benchmark.
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Is the IBM Carbon palette WCAG accessible?
Any two IBM Carbon shades that are at least 6 steps apart reach 4.5:1 contrast in every ramp — that is the palette's contrast span (K). Pick text and background 6 or more steps apart and you never need to check a pair by hand.
| Contrast target | Used for | Steps apart needed (K) |
|---|---|---|
| 3:1 | large text, icons, UI borders (WCAG AA) | 5 of 11 |
| 4.5:1 | body text (WCAG AA) | 6 of 11 |
| 7:1 | body text (WCAG AAA) | 7 of 11 |
Quality metrics
Each metric is 0–1 (higher is better); the composite score is their geometric mean × 100.
| Metric | IBM Carbon | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Contrast efficiency | 0.911 | how much of the ramp the WCAG contrast span consumes |
| Lightness linearity | 0.930 | whether perceived lightness steps evenly |
| Chroma smoothness | 0.869 | whether saturation changes without kinks |
| Hue stability | 0.929 | whether each ramp keeps its hue from light to dark |
| Spacing uniformity | 0.792 | whether adjacent shades are equally distinct (CIEDE2000) |
All 12 ramps
yellow
#ffffff · #fcf4d6 · #fddc69 · #f1c21b · #d2a106 · #b28600 · #8e6a00 · #684e00 · #483700 · #302400 · #1c1500 · #000000
orange
#ffffff · #fff2e8 · #ffd9be · #ffb784 · #ff832b · #eb6200 · #ba4e00 · #8a3800 · #5e2900 · #3e1a00 · #231000 · #000000
red
#ffffff · #fff1f1 · #ffd7d9 · #ffb3b8 · #ff8389 · #fa4d56 · #da1e28 · #a2191f · #750e13 · #520408 · #2d0709 · #000000
magenta
#ffffff · #fff0f7 · #ffd6e8 · #ffafd2 · #ff7eb6 · #ee5396 · #d02670 · #9f1853 · #740937 · #510224 · #2a0a18 · #000000
purple
#ffffff · #f6f2ff · #e8daff · #d4bbff · #be95ff · #a56eff · #8a3ffc · #6929c4 · #491d8b · #31135e · #1c0f30 · #000000
blue
#ffffff · #edf5ff · #d0e2ff · #a6c8ff · #78a9ff · #4589ff · #0f62fe · #0043ce · #002d9c · #001d6c · #001141 · #000000
cyan
#ffffff · #e5f6ff · #bae6ff · #82cfff · #33b1ff · #1192e8 · #0072c3 · #00539a · #003a6d · #012749 · #061727 · #000000
teal
#ffffff · #d9fbfb · #9ef0f0 · #3ddbd9 · #08bdba · #009d9a · #007d79 · #005d5d · #004144 · #022b30 · #081a1c · #000000
green
#ffffff · #defbe6 · #a7f0ba · #6fdc8c · #42be65 · #24a148 · #198038 · #0e6027 · #044317 · #022d0d · #071908 · #000000
gray
#ffffff · #f4f4f4 · #e0e0e0 · #c6c6c6 · #a8a8a8 · #8d8d8d · #6f6f6f · #525252 · #393939 · #262626 · #161616 · #000000
coolGray
#ffffff · #f2f4f8 · #dde1e6 · #c1c7cd · #a2a9b0 · #878d96 · #697077 · #4d5358 · #343a3f · #21272a · #121619 · #000000
warmGray
#ffffff · #f7f3f2 · #e5e0df · #cac5c4 · #ada8a8 · #8f8b8b · #726e6e · #565151 · #3c3838 · #272525 · #171414 · #000000
How IBM Carbon compares
Design systems that score higher: Adobe Spectrum (88.59).
Other audits: Adobe Spectrum · U.S. Web Design System · Salesforce Lightning 2 · GitHub Primer · Atlassian · Tailwind CSS · Ant Design · Material UI v4 · Radix UI · Shopify Polaris — or see the full ranking.
Want a palette that scores higher? The Palette Generator builds ramps from any base color with even perceptual steps and a short contrast span.