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Bright Snapdragon

#b3ac37
Notes

Bright Snapdragon (#B3AC37) is a true yellow with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (57°, 53%, 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
#b3ac37
RGB
rgb(179, 172, 55)
HSL
hsl(57, 53%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(57 22% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(72.9% 0.135 105.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6972 0.6754 0.2982)
HSV
hsv(57, 69%, 70%)
LAB
lab(69.02% -11.39 58.12)
LCH
lch(69.02% 59.23 101.09)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 4%, 69%, 30%)

Etymology

Bright
adjective

Old English beorht, shining, luminous — cognate with the German Bracht, splendor. Applied to color since at least the medieval period for hues that read as luminous: not just light in value but optically active, as if scattering more light back than a dimmer color of the same lightness would. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside vivid and brilliant.

Snapdragon
noun

The genus Antirrhinum — particularly A. majus, the cottage-garden biennial whose tall flower spikes feature snapping dragon-mouth blooms in pinks, oranges, and yellows. The color refers to a yellow snapdragon bloom: a saturated, slightly red-shifted bright yellow with the matte finish of bee-pollinated flower stack.

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.

#b3ac37
Original
#bba625
Protanopia
#beab3f
Deuteranopia
#c0a195
Tritanopia
#a5a5a5
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
2.37:1
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
8.87:1

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
##B3AC37
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6972 0.6754 0.2982)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.135

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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