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Acidic Jacinth

#b9a330
Notes

Acidic Jacinth (#B9A330) 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 (50°, 59%, 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
#b9a330
RGB
rgb(185, 163, 48)
HSL
hsl(50, 59%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(50 19% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.5% 0.132 98.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7112 0.6423 0.2756)
HSV
hsv(50, 74%, 73%)
LAB
lab(67.07% -4.38 59.07)
LCH
lch(67.07% 59.23 94.24)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 12%, 74%, 27%)

Etymology

Acidic
adjective

Latin acidus, sour — adjectival suffix -ic, sharing root with acetic and acerbic. As a color modifier, acidic implies a saturated-and-citric-and-sour quality, the bright color of lime-zest-and-pickled-lime citrus-fruit pulp surface. Sits at the bright-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to acid and electric in usage.

Jacinth
noun

The yellow-orange variety of zircon — used in medieval European jewelry as a substitute for hessonite garnet. The name traces to the Greek hyakinthos, the same myth that gave the flower hyacinth its name. The color refers to a faceted Sri Lankan jacinth: a warm, slightly muted gold-orange with the gem's signature internal warmth.

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.

#b9a330
Original
#b39f1c
Protanopia
#b9a637
Deuteranopia
#c8978d
Tritanopia
#9f9f9f
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
2.52:1
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
8.34:1

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
##B9A330
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7112 0.6423 0.2756)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.132

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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