Blazing Shade Chartreuse
Blazing Shade Chartreuse (#BAB912) is a true yellow with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (60°, 82%, 40%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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.
Etymology
Old English blǣse, flame — present-participle of blaze. As a color modifier, blazing implies a saturated-and-bright-flaming quality, the bright color of Yule-log and Bonfire-Night large-flame fire-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to flaming and scorching in usage.
Old English sceadu, shadow-or-shelter. As a color modifier, shade implies a sheltered-and-cool-and-shadowed quality, the visual register of Tuscan-cypress-and-Provençal-plane-tree-shade hand-sheltered-and-cool-and-shadowed Tuscan-cypress-and-Provençal-plane-tree-and-English-yew shaded-and-sheltered-and-cool surfaces under Tuscan-cypress-and-Provençal-plane-tree-and-English-yew dappled-and-cool-and-filtered afternoon-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to shadow and gloam in usage.
The yellow-green French liqueur made by Carthusian monks at the Grande Chartreuse monastery since 1737, from a recipe of 130 herbs known to only two living monks at any time. The color is the base spirit chartreuse jaune in a glass: a saturated, slightly green yellow that's brighter than lemon and warmer than lime. The liqueur gave the color its name, not the other way around.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.