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Hyper Buttercup

#b5b52a
Notes

Hyper Buttercup (#B5B52A) 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 (60°, 62%, 44%) 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
#b5b52a
RGB
rgb(181, 181, 42)
HSL
hsl(60, 62%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(60 16% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.0% 0.151 109.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7098 0.7098 0.2771)
HSV
hsv(60, 77%, 71%)
LAB
lab(71.58% -15.75 65.19)
LCH
lch(71.58% 67.06 103.58)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 0%, 77%, 29%)

Etymology

Hyper
adjective

Greek hyper, over / beyond — sharing root with Latin super. As a color modifier, hyper implies a saturated-and-over-the-top-active quality where the hue exceeds normal visual amplitude with maximum-stimulation register. Sits at the bright-and-over-active end of the grid, parallel to manic and frenetic in usage.

Buttercup
noun

Ranunculus acris and its meadow cousins — the small, glossy yellow flowers of European pastures whose petals reflect ultraviolet light to attract bees. The color refers to a buttercup petal in full sun: a saturated, slightly cool yellow with the polished finish of an epidermis that scatters light like wet paint. The folk test for whether you like butter — holding the flower under your chin to catch its yellow reflection — works on every variety.

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.

#b5b52a
Original
#c4ad01
Protanopia
#c6b136
Deuteranopia
#c2a99b
Tritanopia
#ababab
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
2.19:1
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
9.61:1

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
##B5B52A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7098 0.7098 0.2771)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.151

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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