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Coruscating Ki-iro

#a4a526
Notes

Coruscating Ki-iro (#A4A526) 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°, 63%, 40%) 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
#a4a526
RGB
rgb(164, 165, 38)
HSL
hsl(60, 63%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(60 15% 35%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.9% 0.141 110.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6438 0.6469 0.2509)
HSV
hsv(60, 77%, 65%)
LAB
lab(65.70% -15.12 60.58)
LCH
lch(65.70% 62.44 104.01)
CMYK
cmyk(1%, 0%, 77%, 35%)

Etymology

Coruscating
adjective

Latin coruscāns, flashing — present-participle of coruscāre. As a color modifier, coruscating implies a saturated-and-rapidly-flashing quality, the bright color of lightning-strike atmospheric-electrical-discharge against the night-sky. Sits at the bright-and-flashing end of the grid, parallel to flashing and flickering in usage.

Ki-iro
noun

The Japanese word for yellow — built from ki (yellow) and iro (color). Used in the warm palette of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, kintsugi-repaired ceramics, and the gold-leafed wallpaper of Heian-period palaces. The color refers to ki-iro-painted byōbu folding screens: a saturated, slightly cool pure yellow with the matte finish of mineral-pigment-on-paper. The Japanese cousin of yellow.

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.

#a4a526
Original
#b39e03
Protanopia
#b4a131
Deuteranopia
#b09a8d
Tritanopia
#9c9c9c
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
7.99:1

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
##A4A526
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6438 0.6469 0.2509)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.141

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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