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Sure Linden

#c4a97b
Notes

Sure Linden (#C4A97B) 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 (38°, 38%, 63%) 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#c4a97b
RGB
rgb(196, 169, 123)
HSL
hsl(38, 38%, 63%)
HWB
hwb(38 48% 23%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.7% 0.069 80.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7512 0.6666 0.5048)
HSV
hsv(38, 37%, 77%)
LAB
lab(70.55% 3.26 27.39)
LCH
lch(70.55% 27.58 83.22)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 14%, 37%, 23%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Linden
noun

The genus Tilia — the European linden or basswood, whose pale yellow-green flowers perfume European parks in early summer and yield the tilleul tisane of French herbal medicine. The color refers to fresh linden flowers in June: a soft, slightly green-shifted pale yellow with the matte finish of small clustered florets.

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.

#c4a97b
Original
#b5a978
Protanopia
#bbaf7c
Deuteranopia
#cfa19d
Tritanopia
#ababab
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
2.26:1
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
9.31:1

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
##C4A97B
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7512 0.6666 0.5048)
Inside sRGBOKLCH chroma 0.069

This color sits well within the sRGB cube. P3 and sRGB share the gray axis and most desaturated tones, so a P3 display renders this identically to an sRGB display.

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