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Spectral Yolk

#b2bf2a
Notes

Spectral Yolk (#B2BF2A) is a true yellow 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 (65°, 64%, 46%) 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
#b2bf2a
RGB
rgb(178, 191, 42)
HSL
hsl(65, 64%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(65 16% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.9% 0.162 114.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7074 0.7474 0.2858)
HSV
hsv(65, 78%, 75%)
LAB
lab(74.12% -22.03 67.40)
LCH
lch(74.12% 70.91 108.10)
CMYK
cmyk(7%, 0%, 78%, 25%)

Etymology

Spectral
adjective

Latin spectrum, appearance — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, spectral implies a saturated-and-rainbow-decomposed-and-pure quality, the bright color of Newton-prism sunlight-decomposed seven-color spectrum band. Sits at the bright-and-pure end of the grid, parallel to prismatic and pure in usage.

Yolk
noun

The yellow center of a chicken egg — colored by carotenoid pigments in the hen's feed, ranging from pale lemon (commercial barn-raised) to deep orange (pasture-raised, marigold-supplemented). The color refers to a fresh free-range yolk against the white: a saturated, slightly orange-shifted yellow with the satiny surface of a vitellus membrane. Warmer than canary, deeper than sunflower; the unifying yellow of breakfast.

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.

#b2bf2a
Original
#cdb500
Protanopia
#ccb738
Deuteranopia
#beb3a4
Tritanopia
#b1b1b1
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
10.38:1

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
##B2BF2A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7074 0.7474 0.2858)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.162

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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