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Sunlit Vireo

#bbb302
Notes

Sunlit Vireo (#BBB302) is a true yellow with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (57°, 98%, 37%) 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.

HEX
#bbb302
RGB
rgb(187, 179, 2)
HSL
hsl(57, 98%, 37%)
HWB
hwb(57 1% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.9% 0.160 106.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7279 0.7030 0.2257)
HSV
hsv(57, 99%, 73%)
LAB
lab(71.43% -12.99 73.01)
LCH
lch(71.43% 74.15 100.09)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 4%, 99%, 27%)

Etymology

Sunlit
adjective

Old English sunne (sun) plus past-participle līehted. As a color modifier, sunlit implies a saturated-and-direct-sunlight-illuminated quality, the bright color of southern-Mediterranean and Greek-island afternoon-sun direct-illumination surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to radiant and brilliant in usage.

Vireo
noun

The genus Vireo — small North American songbirds with yellow-tinted plumage. Particularly V. flavifrons (yellow-throated vireo) whose males have bright yellow throats and breasts. The color refers to a yellow-throated vireo's breast: a soft, slightly cool yellow with the matte finish of feather pigment.

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.

#bbb302
Original
#c4ac00
Protanopia
#c7b120
Deuteranopia
#caa698
Tritanopia
#a8a8a8
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
2.20:1
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
9.56:1

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
##BBB302
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7279 0.7030 0.2257)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.160

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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