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Even Cowslip

#b5be72
Notes

Even Cowslip (#B5BE72) 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 (67°, 37%, 60%) 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
#b5be72
RGB
rgb(181, 190, 114)
HSL
hsl(67, 37%, 60%)
HWB
hwb(67 45% 25%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.7% 0.100 114.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7162 0.7440 0.4827)
HSV
hsv(67, 40%, 75%)
LAB
lab(74.74% -14.85 37.30)
LCH
lch(74.74% 40.15 111.71)
CMYK
cmyk(5%, 0%, 40%, 25%)

Etymology

Even
adjective

Old English efen, flat, equal — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as uniformly distributed across a surface. Even gray, even tan: the implication is moderate saturation combined with optical uniformity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and balanced.

Cowslip
noun

Primula veris, the European meadow primrose whose yellow flower clusters appear in late spring. The name traces to Old English cū-slyppe, cow-slop (i.e., cow dung — for where it grew). The color refers to fresh cowslip in May meadow: a soft, slightly red-shifted pale yellow with the matte finish of small five-petaled flowers in tight clusters.

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.

#b5be72
Original
#c8b76c
Protanopia
#c8b976
Deuteranopia
#bdb6ab
Tritanopia
#b7b7b7
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
1.99:1
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
10.57:1

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
##B5BE72
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7162 0.7440 0.4827)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.100

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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