What color do yellow and orange make?
Yellow and Orange make amber.
Yellow and Orange make amber, #ffbf00. That is the result in equal parts, mixing pigment rather than light - paint, ink and dye all behave this way.
Equal parts yellow and orange · #ffbf00
Change the ratio
Very little of a mix is ever half and half. Shifting the balance moves the result along the range between the two colours.
3 parts yellow, 1 part orange · #ffdf00
Equal parts · #ffbf00
1 part yellow, 3 parts orange · #ff9f00
Lighter and darker
With white added - a tint · #ffdf80
With black added - a shade · #997300
Why it works
Pigment mixes subtractively: yellow paint absorbs the wavelengths it is not reflecting, orange absorbs its own set, and amber is what neither of them absorbed. This is why paint behaves differently from a screen, where light adds together instead.
Frequently asked questions
What color do yellow and orange make?
Yellow and Orange make amber, #ffbf00. Mixed in equal parts that is the result you get with paint, ink or any other pigment.
How do I make the result lighter or darker?
Add white for a tint - here that gives mustard. Add black for a shade, which gives olive. Add white a little at a time, because it takes far less than people expect to shift a mix.
What happens if I use more yellow than orange?
Three parts yellow to one part orange gives gold. Reversing it to one part yellow and three parts orange gives orange instead.
Does this work the same way on a screen?
No. Screens mix light additively, so red and green light make yellow there. These results are subtractive - paint, ink, dye and pigment - which is what people mean when they ask what two colours make.