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Glowing Wheat

#b9c933
Notes

Glowing Wheat (#B9C933) 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 (66°, 60%, 49%) 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
#b9c933
RGB
rgb(185, 201, 51)
HSL
hsl(66, 60%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(66 20% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.8% 0.166 115.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7371 0.7863 0.3147)
HSV
hsv(66, 75%, 79%)
LAB
lab(77.48% -23.62 67.89)
LCH
lch(77.48% 71.88 109.18)
CMYK
cmyk(8%, 0%, 75%, 21%)

Etymology

Glowing
adjective

The progressive participle of glow, to emit light — used as a color word since the medieval period for hues that read as if they were luminous from within. Glowing amber, glowing rose: the implication is moderate saturation combined with the optical impression of internal light. Sits in the bright-bucket alongside radiant.

Wheat
noun

Triticum, the grass domesticated in the Levant ten thousand years ago and now grown on more land than any other crop. The color refers to a field of mature wheat just before harvest: a soft, slightly golden tan with the dry surface of ripening grain. Warmer than straw, lighter than honey, with the agricultural weight of every bread-eating civilization.

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.

#b9c933
Original
#d7bf0f
Protanopia
#d6c140
Deuteranopia
#c5bdad
Tritanopia
#bbbbbb
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
1.83:1
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
11.47:1

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
##B9C933
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7371 0.7863 0.3147)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.166

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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