Olive vs Khaki
Can you tell them apart?
#808000
#BDB76B
Perceptual difference (ΔE): 28 — clearly different.
Olive and khaki are both muted yellow-greens associated with military clothing, but they differ significantly in value and warmth. Olive — technically olive green — is a dark, subdued yellow-green that falls between green, yellow, and brown, named after the fruit of the olive tree. Khaki, an Urdu-Persian word for 'dusty', is lighter and more beige-yellow-green: the colour of chino trousers or sandy desert soil — specifically the darker chino shade (#BDB76B, sometimes labelled 'dark khaki' in CSS), not the paler, more lemony CSS `khaki` keyword (#F0E68C). Olive is what happens when you darken khaki considerably and let it become more green; khaki is what happens when you warm and lighten olive toward beige.
How to tell them apart
Khaki is distinctly lighter and warmer than olive. Olive looks like dark camouflage or army surplus; khaki looks like chinos, desert sand, or light-wash utility fabric.
Color values
| HEX | #808000 |
|---|---|
| RGB | 128, 128, 0 |
| HSL | 60°, 100%, 25% |
| CMYK | 0, 0, 100, 50 |
| HEX | #BDB76B |
|---|---|
| RGB | 189, 183, 107 |
| HSL | 56°, 38%, 58% |
| CMYK | 0, 3, 43, 26 |
FAQ
- Is olive green the same as khaki?
- No. Both are muted yellow-greens, but olive is significantly darker and greener while khaki is lighter and more beige.
- Why did khaki become the standard military colour?
- The British Indian Army adopted dust-coloured khaki in the 1840s as a practical improvement over highly visible scarlet coats — the sandy hue blended into arid Indian terrain. By the First World War it had become the default battle-dress colour for Allied forces worldwide, and from there it migrated into civilian chino trousers.