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Bracing Hansa

#b0ad09
Notes

Bracing Hansa (#B0AD09) is a true yellow with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (59°, 90%, 36%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#b0ad09
RGB
rgb(176, 173, 9)
HSL
hsl(59, 90%, 36%)
HWB
hwb(59 4% 31%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.6% 0.156 108.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6881 0.6788 0.2214)
HSV
hsv(59, 95%, 69%)
LAB
lab(68.85% -14.68 69.85)
LCH
lch(68.85% 71.38 101.87)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 2%, 95%, 31%)

Etymology

Bracing
adjective

Old French bracier, to embrace — present-participle of brace. As a color modifier, bracing implies a saturated-and-cool-and-energizing quality, the bright color of Atlantic-Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air visual-stimulation. Sits at the bright-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to invigorating and crisp in usage.

Hansa
noun

Hansa Yellow — a class of azo-pigment yellows introduced in 1909 — particularly Hansa Yellow G and Hansa Yellow 10G used in modern artists' watercolors and acrylics. The color refers to fresh Hansa Yellow watercolor on white paper: a saturated, slightly cool yellow with the matte finish of azo-pigment.

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.

#b0ad09
Original
#bca500
Protanopia
#bfaa21
Deuteranopia
#bea193
Tritanopia
#a2a2a2
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
2.38:1
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
8.83:1

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
##B0AD09
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6881 0.6788 0.2214)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.156

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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