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Diplomatic Turmeric

#917f75
Notes

Diplomatic Turmeric (#917F75) is a true orange with a warm character. It leans warm, pulling light toward red, orange, and yellow. Naturally inviting, it suits editorial and hospitality contexts. Its HSL profile (21°, 11%, 51%) places it in the muted band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#917f75
RGB
rgb(145, 127, 117)
HSL
hsl(21, 11%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(21 46% 43%)
OKLCH
oklch(61.0% 0.027 50.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.5569 0.5006 0.4639)
HSV
hsv(21, 19%, 57%)
LAB
lab(54.54% 5.16 7.96)
LCH
lch(54.54% 9.49 57.02)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 12%, 19%, 43%)

Etymology

Diplomatic
adjective

Greek diplōma, folded-paper / certificate — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, diplomatic implies a hushed-and-careful-and-tactful quality, the hushed color of Edwardian-period embassy-and-state-room careful-and-balanced-formal interior-decoration. Sits at the hushed-and-restrained end of the grid, parallel to tactful and discreet in usage.

Turmeric
noun

Curcuma longa, the rhizome that gives South and Southeast Asian curries their yellow-orange color and their anti-inflammatory reputation. The color refers to fresh-ground turmeric powder: a saturated, slightly red yellow-orange with the dusty finish of plant-derived pigment. Warmer than mustard, drier than saffron.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#917f75
Original
#848074
Protanopia
#888475
Deuteranopia
#977c7c
Tritanopia
#828282
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon White
3.82:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
5.50:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##917F75
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.5569 0.5006 0.4639)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.027

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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