Caffeinated Yellowthroat
Caffeinated Yellowthroat (#9CA40D) is a true yellow with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (63°, 85%, 35%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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.
Etymology
Modern French caféine — past-participle of caffeinate. As a color modifier, caffeinated implies a saturated-and-jumpy-and-active quality, the bright color of Red-Bull-and-Monster energy-drink-can label-design saturated-and-energizing palette. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to jazzed and wired in usage.
Geothlypis trichas, the common yellowthroat — a North American warbler whose males have a black mask and bright yellow throat. The color refers to the yellow throat patch of a male yellowthroat: a saturated, slightly red yellow with the matte finish of carotenoid-pigmented feathers. Brighter than warbler.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.