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Bubbly Forsythia

#bdc737
Notes

Bubbly Forsythia (#BDC737) 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 (64°, 57%, 50%) 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
#bdc737
RGB
rgb(189, 199, 55)
HSL
hsl(64, 57%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(64 22% 22%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.7% 0.160 113.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7483 0.7791 0.3224)
HSV
hsv(64, 72%, 78%)
LAB
lab(77.25% -20.78 66.45)
LCH
lch(77.25% 69.62 107.37)
CMYK
cmyk(5%, 0%, 72%, 22%)

Etymology

Bubbly
adjective

Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — adjectival suffix -y, evoking the sound of bubbles. As a color modifier, bubbly implies a saturated-and-effervescent-and-cheerful quality, the bright color of Champagne-and-Prosecco effervescent-wine carbonation-bubble-light reflection. Sits at the bright-and-effervescent end of the grid, parallel to fizzy and effervescent in usage.

Forsythia
noun

Forsythia × intermedia, the East Asian shrub naturalized in European gardens — and the bright yellow flowers that cover bare branches in early spring before the leaves emerge. The color refers to a fresh Forsythia bloom in March: a saturated, slightly red-shifted bright yellow with the matte finish of small four-petaled flowers covering an entire shrub.

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.

#bdc737
Original
#d6bd1b
Protanopia
#d6c043
Deuteranopia
#cabbab
Tritanopia
#bababa
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
1.84:1
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
11.39:1

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
##BDC737
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7483 0.7791 0.3224)
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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