colors
Back to gallery

Pragmatic Haldi

#c59b5b
Notes

Pragmatic Haldi (#C59B5B) 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 (36°, 48%, 56%) 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
#c59b5b
RGB
rgb(197, 155, 91)
HSL
hsl(36, 48%, 56%)
HWB
hwb(36 36% 23%)
OKLCH
oklch(71.5% 0.096 76.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7467 0.6142 0.3937)
HSV
hsv(36, 54%, 77%)
LAB
lab(66.57% 7.96 39.24)
LCH
lch(66.57% 40.04 78.53)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 21%, 54%, 23%)

Etymology

Pragmatic
adjective

Greek pragmatikós, of business / practical — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, pragmatic implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-no-nonsense quality where the hue carries the visual register of straightforward-utilitarian-and-functional decision-making. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and functional in usage.

Haldi
noun

The Hindi word for turmeric — the South Asian spice and ceremonial pigment used in Hindu haldi pre-wedding rituals and in gor-haldi (turmeric milk). The color refers to fresh haldi paste applied to skin in a wedding ritual: a saturated, slightly red-shifted yellow with the dusty finish of fresh-ground rhizome. Warmer than turmeric.

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.

#c59b5b
Original
#ab9c56
Protanopia
#b5a65d
Deuteranopia
#d48f8c
Tritanopia
#9f9f9f
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
2.56:1
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
8.21:1

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
##C59B5B
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7467 0.6142 0.3937)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.096

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.

Related Colors

Canvas