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Stable Coltsfoot

#bb9e32
Notes

Stable Coltsfoot (#BB9E32) 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 (47°, 58%, 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
#bb9e32
RGB
rgb(187, 158, 50)
HSL
hsl(47, 58%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(47 20% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.6% 0.127 93.5)
HSV
hsv(47, 73%, 73%)
LAB
lab(65.94% -0.73 57.28)
LCH
lch(65.94% 57.29 90.73)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 16%, 73%, 27%)

Etymology

Stable
adjective

Latin stabilis, standing-firm — sharing root with stand. As a color modifier, stable implies a clear-and-firm-and-unchanging quality where the hue carries the visual register of resistant-to-modulation-and-fade pigmentation. Sits at the crisp-and-firm end of the grid, parallel to steady and settled in usage.

Coltsfoot
noun

Tussilago farfara, the European wildflower whose bright yellow composite blooms appear before the leaves in early spring — used as a herbal cough remedy since classical times. The color refers to a fresh coltsfoot in March: a saturated, slightly orange yellow with the matte finish of dandelion-form composite flower.

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

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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.

#bb9e32
Original
#af9b21
Protanopia
#b6a438
Deuteranopia
#ca9189
Tritanopia
#9c9c9c
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
2.61:1
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
8.05:1

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