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Mistlike Sphene

#ae9c82
Notes

Mistlike Sphene (#AE9C82) 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 (35°, 21%, 60%) 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#ae9c82
RGB
rgb(174, 156, 130)
HSL
hsl(35, 21%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(35 51% 32%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.2% 0.042 77.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6705 0.6143 0.5216)
HSV
hsv(35, 25%, 68%)
LAB
lab(65.27% 2.44 16.05)
LCH
lch(65.27% 16.23 81.35)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 10%, 25%, 32%)

Etymology

Mistlike
adjective

Old English mist — adjectival suffix -like. As a color modifier, mistlike implies a pale-and-vaporous-and-soft-edged quality, the pale color of Cornish-coast-and-Scottish-Highlands early-morning fog-and-mist atmospheric-soft-edged surface. Sits at the pale-and-veiled end of the grid, parallel to foggy and misted in usage.

Sphene
noun

A calcium-titanium silicate gem — also called titanite — known for its high dispersion (more than diamond) and its yellow-to-greenish-yellow body color. Mined principally in Madagascar, Brazil, and Pakistan. The color refers to a faceted Madagascar sphene: a saturated, slightly cool yellow-green with the gem's signature internal fire.

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.

#ae9c82
Original
#a39c80
Protanopia
#a8a083
Deuteranopia
#b69795
Tritanopia
#9e9e9e
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
2.67:1
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
7.88:1

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
##AE9C82
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6705 0.6143 0.5216)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.042

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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