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Kindled Joy Goldenrod

#a8b934
Notes

Kindled Joy Goldenrod (#A8B934) 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 (68°, 56%, 46%) 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
#a8b934
RGB
rgb(168, 185, 52)
HSL
hsl(68, 56%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(68 20% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.9% 0.153 116.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6713 0.7234 0.2997)
HSV
hsv(68, 72%, 73%)
LAB
lab(71.74% -22.84 61.63)
LCH
lch(71.74% 65.73 110.33)
CMYK
cmyk(9%, 0%, 72%, 27%)

Etymology

Kindled
adjective

Old Norse kynda, to set on fire — past-participle of kindle. As a color modifier, kindled implies a saturated-and-newly-lit quality, the bright color of autumn-bonfire-and-stove-fire initial-combustion emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to ignited and aflame in usage.

Joy
modifier

Latin gaudia, delights. As a color modifier, joy implies a bright-and-radiant-and-uplifted quality, the visual register of Provençal-troubadour-and-Florentine-Carnival-joy hand-bright-and-radiant-and-uplifted Provençal-troubadour-and-Florentine-Carnival-and-Renaissance-festa joyful-and-bright-and-radiant-and-uplifted surfaces under Provençal-troubadour-and-Florentine-Carnival-and-Renaissance-festa banner-and-procession-and-piazza festival-day-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to bliss and glee 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.

#a8b934
Original
#c6af1b
Protanopia
#c4b13f
Deuteranopia
#b3ae9f
Tritanopia
#acacac
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
2.18:1
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
9.65:1

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
##A8B934
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6713 0.7234 0.2997)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.153

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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