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Vivid Tabebuia

#bbab31
Notes

Vivid Tabebuia (#BBAB31) 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 (53°, 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
#bbab31
RGB
rgb(187, 171, 49)
HSL
hsl(53, 58%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(53 19% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.4% 0.137 101.6)
HSV
hsv(53, 74%, 73%)
LAB
lab(69.41% -7.68 61.00)
LCH
lch(69.41% 61.48 97.17)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 9%, 74%, 27%)

Etymology

Vivid
adjective

From the Latin vividus, full of life — used as a color modifier since the late sixteenth century for hues that read as luminous and saturated. Vivid red, vivid blue: the implication is that the color appears almost lit from within, with the optical brightness of a high-chroma surface in good light. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside bright and electric.

Tabebuia
noun

The genus Tabebuia (now reclassified as Handroanthus) — South American flowering trees whose pendulous racemes of yellow trumpet-flowers cover the canopy in early spring. The color refers to a T. chrysantha (national tree of Venezuela) in bloom: a saturated, slightly red yellow with the satin finish of large trumpet-shaped flowers.

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.

#bbab31
Original
#bba61b
Protanopia
#c0ac39
Deuteranopia
#c99f93
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.34:1
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
8.98:1

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