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Pristine Primrose

#a9ae77
Notes

Pristine Primrose (#A9AE77) 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 (65°, 25%, 57%) places it in the muted 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
#a9ae77
RGB
rgb(169, 174, 119)
HSL
hsl(65, 25%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(65 47% 32%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.3% 0.075 112.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6663 0.6817 0.4905)
HSV
hsv(65, 32%, 68%)
LAB
lab(69.50% -10.73 27.71)
LCH
lch(69.50% 29.71 111.17)
CMYK
cmyk(3%, 0%, 32%, 32%)

Etymology

Pristine
adjective

Latin prīstinus, original / former. As a color modifier, pristine implies a clear-and-untouched quality where the hue carries the original-condition visual register without wear or fade. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to unblemished and spotless in usage.

Primrose
noun

Primula vulgaris, the European primrose whose pale yellow flowers appear in early spring — prima rosa (first rose) for its early bloom. The color refers to a fresh primrose in March: a soft, slightly cool pale yellow with the satin finish of five-petaled flower with darker yellow center. Cooler than cowslip.

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.

#a9ae77
Original
#b6a973
Protanopia
#b6aa79
Deuteranopia
#b0a8a0
Tritanopia
#a9a9a9
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
2.33:1
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
9.01:1

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
##A9AE77
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6663 0.6817 0.4905)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.075

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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