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Burning Amarillo

#a9b625
Notes

Burning Amarillo (#A9B625) is a true yellow with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (65°, 66%, 43%) 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
#a9b625
RGB
rgb(169, 182, 37)
HSL
hsl(65, 66%, 43%)
HWB
hwb(65 15% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.2% 0.158 115.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6722 0.7121 0.2659)
HSV
hsv(65, 80%, 71%)
LAB
lab(70.89% -21.59 65.69)
LCH
lch(70.89% 69.15 108.20)
CMYK
cmyk(7%, 0%, 80%, 29%)

Etymology

Burning
adjective

The progressive participle of burn — used as a color modifier for hues that read as actively luminous, as if combustion is in progress. Burning red, burning orange: the implication is high saturation combined with thermal heat. Sits in the bright-and-warm corner alongside hot and flame. Slightly more active than smoldering.

Amarillo
noun

The Spanish word for yellow — and the Texas city named for the surrounding subsoil clay. The color refers to amarillo-dyed Spanish silk: a saturated, slightly red yellow with the satin finish of plant-and-mordant dye. The Spanish 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.

#a9b625
Original
#c4ac00
Protanopia
#c3af33
Deuteranopia
#b4ab9c
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
2.23:1
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
9.40:1

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
##A9B625
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6722 0.7121 0.2659)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.158

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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