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Sparking Indochina

#b3a506
Notes

Sparking Indochina (#B3A506) 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 (55°, 94%, 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
#b3a506
RGB
rgb(179, 165, 6)
HSL
hsl(55, 94%, 36%)
HWB
hwb(55 2% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.2% 0.149 103.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6926 0.6490 0.2109)
HSV
hsv(55, 97%, 70%)
LAB
lab(66.91% -9.23 68.88)
LCH
lch(66.91% 69.50 97.63)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 8%, 97%, 30%)

Etymology

Sparking
adjective

Old English spearca, spark — present-participle of spark. As a color modifier, sparking implies a saturated-and-electrical-emission quality, the bright color of welding-arc-and-Tesla-coil high-voltage spark-discharge emission. Sits at the bright-and-electric end of the grid, parallel to flashing and coruscating in usage.

Indochina
noun

The historical name for mainland Southeast Asia — Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. Indochina as a color refers to the warm yellow of Cambodian and Vietnamese rice paddies in late autumn: a saturated, slightly red-shifted gold-yellow with the matte finish of ripening grain across an entire landscape.

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.

#b3a506
Original
#b59f00
Protanopia
#baa61d
Deuteranopia
#c2988c
Tritanopia
#9c9c9c
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
2.53:1
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
8.30:1

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
##B3A506
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6926 0.6490 0.2109)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.149

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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