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Holographic Phosphor

#a9c139
Notes

Holographic Phosphor (#A9C139) is a true yellow with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (71°, 54%, 49%) 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 indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#a9c139
RGB
rgb(169, 193, 57)
HSL
hsl(71, 54%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(71 22% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.8% 0.159 119.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6807 0.7540 0.3183)
HSV
hsv(71, 70%, 76%)
LAB
lab(74.11% -26.06 62.18)
LCH
lch(74.11% 67.41 112.74)
CMYK
cmyk(12%, 0%, 70%, 24%)

Etymology

Holographic
adjective

Greek hólos (whole) and graphé (writing) — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, holographic implies a saturated-and-multi-angle-shifting quality, the bright color of holographic-credit-card and trading-card dichroic-film 3D-image-reflection. Sits at the bright-and-shifting end of the grid, parallel to iridescent and prismatic in usage.

Phosphor
noun

A chemical that emits light when excited by an external energy source — the green-and-yellow phosphors of cathode-ray tubes, the yellow phosphor coatings of fluorescent tubes, and the white-LED yellow phosphor over a blue LED. The color refers to a yellow-phosphor-coated LED at full brightness: a saturated, slightly cool yellow with the optical brightness of electroluminescent emission.

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.

#a9c139
Original
#cdb622
Protanopia
#cbb744
Deuteranopia
#b3b7a6
Tritanopia
#b2b2b2
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
2.02:1
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
10.37:1

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
##A9C139
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6807 0.7540 0.3183)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.159

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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