colors
Back to gallery

Showy Mughal

#a9b430
Notes

Showy Mughal (#A9B430) 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°, 58%, 45%) 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
#a9b430
RGB
rgb(169, 180, 48)
HSL
hsl(65, 58%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(65 19% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.8% 0.150 114.3)
HSV
hsv(65, 73%, 71%)
LAB
lab(70.38% -20.13 61.76)
LCH
lch(70.38% 64.96 108.06)
CMYK
cmyk(6%, 0%, 73%, 29%)

Etymology

Showy
adjective

Old English scēawian, to look at — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, showy implies a saturated-and-attention-grabbing quality, the bright color of Las-Vegas-and-Broadway neon-and-marquee theatrical-display lighting. Sits at the bright-and-flamboyant end of the grid, parallel to flamboyant and splashy in usage.

Mughal
noun

The Mughal Empire (1526–1857) — and the warm yellow palette of Mughal miniature painting, particularly the Mughal Yellow pigment derived from cow urine and used for the saturated yellow robes of Akbar-period court paintings. The color refers to a Mughal jali sandstone screen at the Diwan-i-Khas: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep yellow with the matte finish of carved sandstone.

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.

#a9b430
Original
#c1ab15
Protanopia
#c1ad3b
Deuteranopia
#b4a99b
Tritanopia
#a8a8a8
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
2.27:1
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
9.26:1

Related Colors

Canvas