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Sparking Mead

#c19b1d
Notes

Sparking Mead (#C19B1D) is a true amber with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (46°, 74%, 44%) 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
#c19b1d
RGB
rgb(193, 155, 29)
HSL
hsl(46, 74%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(46 11% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.5% 0.137 90.0)
HSV
hsv(46, 85%, 76%)
LAB
lab(65.65% 2.79 64.22)
LCH
lch(65.65% 64.28 87.52)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 20%, 85%, 24%)

Etymology

Sparking
adjective

Old English spearca, spark — present-participle of spark. As a color modifier, sparking implies a saturated-and-electrical-emission quality, the bright color of welding-arc-and-Tesla-coil high-voltage spark-discharge emission. Sits at the bright-and-electric end of the grid, parallel to flashing and coruscating in usage.

Mead
noun

Honey wine — fermented honey-and-water, one of the oldest known alcoholic beverages, central to Norse and Anglo-Saxon halls. The color refers to a young Polish miód pitny: a soft, slightly cool warm gold-yellow with the optical clarity of honey-derived alcohol. Warmer than champagne, lighter than whiskey.

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.

#c19b1d
Original
#ae9900
Protanopia
#b7a426
Deuteranopia
#d28d85
Tritanopia
#9a9a9a
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
2.63:1
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
7.97:1

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