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Shimmering Cast Goldenrod

#9dbb59
Notes

Shimmering Cast Goldenrod (#9DBB59) is a true lime with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (78°, 42%, 54%) places it in the balanced 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#9dbb59
RGB
rgb(157, 187, 89)
HSL
hsl(78, 42%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(78 35% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.8% 0.130 123.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6386 0.7298 0.3998)
HSV
hsv(78, 52%, 73%)
LAB
lab(71.85% -25.53 45.77)
LCH
lch(71.85% 52.41 119.16)
CMYK
cmyk(16%, 0%, 52%, 27%)

Etymology

Shimmering
adjective

Old English scimerian, to glisten — present-participle of shimmer, sharing root with shine. As a color modifier, shimmering implies a saturated-and-soft-flicker-reflective quality, the bright color of moonlit-water-and-silken-fabric surface-reflection. Sits at the bright-and-reflective end of the grid, parallel to glistening and glimmering in usage.

Cast
modifier

Old Norse kasta, to-throw / to-mold. As a color modifier, cast implies a poured-metal-and-shaped quality, the visual register of foundry-cast-iron-and-bronze hand-poured-and-cooled iron-and-bronze-and-tin foundry-cast-and-shaped surfaces under foundry-cast-iron-and-bronze workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to forged and hewn in usage.

Goldenrod
noun

Solidago, the late-summer wildflower of North American meadows whose tall sprays of small yellow flowers signal the end of the growing season. The color refers to the flower head at full bloom: a warm, slightly muted yellow-orange with the matte finish of small clustered florets. Cooler than mustard, deeper than dandelion. The state flower of Kentucky and Nebraska, a pollinator magnet, and the original native dye for early American homespun.

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.

#9dbb59
Original
#c4b150
Protanopia
#c0b05f
Deuteranopia
#a3b3a5
Tritanopia
#aeaeae
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
2.17:1
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
9.69:1

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
##9DBB59
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6386 0.7298 0.3998)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.130

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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