colors
Back to gallery

Blazing Yellowtail

#a8a81d
Notes

Blazing Yellowtail (#A8A81D) 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°, 71%, 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
#a8a81d
RGB
rgb(168, 168, 29)
HSL
hsl(60, 71%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(60 11% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.9% 0.147 109.6)
HSV
hsv(60, 83%, 66%)
LAB
lab(66.84% -15.22 64.29)
LCH
lch(66.84% 66.07 103.32)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 0%, 83%, 34%)

Etymology

Blazing
adjective

Old English blǣse, flame — present-participle of blaze. As a color modifier, blazing implies a saturated-and-bright-flaming quality, the bright color of Yule-log and Bonfire-Night large-flame fire-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to flaming and scorching in usage.

Yellowtail
noun

Seriola lalandi, the Pacific yellowtail amberjack — a sport fish prized in Japanese sushi cuisine as hamachi. The color refers to the yellow stripe along the lateral line: a saturated, slightly cool yellow with the matte finish of carotenoid-pigmented fish skin. Cooler than goldfinch.

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.

#a8a81d
Original
#b6a000
Protanopia
#b8a42b
Deuteranopia
#b59d8f
Tritanopia
#9e9e9e
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
2.54:1
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
8.28:1

Related Colors

Canvas