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Tidy Pyrite

#b4954e
Notes

Tidy Pyrite (#B4954E) 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 (42°, 40%, 51%) 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#b4954e
RGB
rgb(180, 149, 78)
HSL
hsl(42, 40%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(42 31% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(68.3% 0.097 86.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6863 0.5889 0.3474)
HSV
hsv(42, 57%, 71%)
LAB
lab(63.14% 2.87 41.34)
LCH
lch(63.14% 41.44 86.02)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 17%, 57%, 29%)

Etymology

Tidy
adjective

Old English tidig, timely — drifted in modern English to mean neat, orderly. Used as a color modifier for hues that read as composed and unfussy. Tidy beige, tidy gray: moderate saturation combined with optical neatness. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside plain and modest.

Pyrite
noun

An iron sulfide mineral — fool's gold — whose brassy yellow metallic luster has fooled prospectors since the California Gold Rush. Mined principally in Spain (Rio Tinto), Peru, and Italy. The color refers to a polished pyrite cube: a saturated, slightly cool deep gold with the metallic finish of crystallized iron sulfide.

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.

#b4954e
Original
#a49448
Protanopia
#ab9c51
Deuteranopia
#c18a85
Tritanopia
#969696
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
2.86:1
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
7.35:1

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
##B4954E
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6863 0.5889 0.3474)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.097

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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