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Plainspoken Canvas

#ab921b
Notes

Plainspoken Canvas (#AB921B) is a true amber 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 (50°, 73%, 39%) 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
#ab921b
RGB
rgb(171, 146, 27)
HSL
hsl(50, 73%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(50 11% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(66.3% 0.129 96.0)
HSV
hsv(50, 84%, 67%)
LAB
lab(61.04% -2.29 60.01)
LCH
lch(61.04% 60.06 92.19)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 15%, 84%, 33%)

Etymology

Plainspoken
adjective

English compound plain + spoken — past-participle of speak. As a color modifier, plainspoken implies a clear-and-direct-and-straightforward quality where the hue carries the visual register of unembellished-honest declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to candid and direct in usage.

Canvas
noun

A heavyweight plain-weave cotton or linen fabric — used for ship sails (the original meaning), painter's canvas, and military tent construction. The color refers to undyed natural cotton canvas: a soft, slightly cool pale tan with the textured matte finish of plant-fiber weave.

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.

#ab921b
Original
#a28f00
Protanopia
#a99725
Deuteranopia
#b9867d
Tritanopia
#8f8f8f
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).
AA Largeon White
3.06:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
6.86:1

Related Colors

Canvas