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Trim Sphalerite

#9c9e74
Notes

Trim Sphalerite (#9C9E74) is a true yellow 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 (63°, 18%, 54%) 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 blue. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#9c9e74
RGB
rgb(156, 158, 116)
HSL
hsl(63, 18%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(63 45% 38%)
OKLCH
oklch(68.7% 0.058 110.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6132 0.6193 0.4725)
HSV
hsv(63, 27%, 62%)
LAB
lab(63.98% -7.81 21.78)
LCH
lch(63.98% 23.13 109.73)
CMYK
cmyk(1%, 0%, 27%, 38%)

Etymology

Trim
adjective

Old English trymman, to make firm — sharing root with firm. As a color modifier, trim implies a clear-and-neatly-arranged quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-edited surface-detail. Sits at the crisp-and-neat end of the grid, parallel to neat and tidy in usage.

Sphalerite
noun

A zinc sulfide mineral — both an important zinc ore and a high-dispersion gem with adamantine luster. The yellow variety is mined principally in Spain and Mexico. The color refers to a faceted yellow Spanish sphalerite: a saturated, slightly cool yellow-orange with the gem's signature internal fire (higher dispersion than diamond).

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.

#9c9e74
Original
#a59a71
Protanopia
#a59c76
Deuteranopia
#a29993
Tritanopia
#9b9b9b
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).
Failon White
2.78:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
7.56:1

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
##9C9E74
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6132 0.6193 0.4725)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.058

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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