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Shimmering Lemonade

#a4a523
Notes

Shimmering Lemonade (#A4A523) 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 (60°, 65%, 39%) 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 blue. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#a4a523
RGB
rgb(164, 165, 35)
HSL
hsl(60, 65%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(60 14% 35%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.9% 0.142 110.0)
HSV
hsv(60, 79%, 65%)
LAB
lab(65.69% -15.24 61.50)
LCH
lch(65.69% 63.36 103.92)
CMYK
cmyk(1%, 0%, 79%, 35%)

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.

Lemonade
noun

The classic citrus drink — fresh lemon juice diluted with water and sweetener, served chilled in summer. Lemonade refers to the color of fresh-squeezed lemonade in a clear glass: a soft, slightly cool pale yellow with the optical clarity of citrus-juice-and-water. Cooler than mayonnaise.

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

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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.

#a4a523
Original
#b39e00
Protanopia
#b4a12f
Deuteranopia
#b09a8d
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
2.63:1
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
7.98:1

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