colors
Back to gallery

Acid Primrose

#c7c53b
Notes

Acid Primrose (#C7C53B) 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 (59°, 56%, 51%) 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
#c7c53b
RGB
rgb(199, 197, 59)
HSL
hsl(59, 56%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(59 23% 22%)
OKLCH
oklch(80.1% 0.154 108.6)
HSV
hsv(59, 70%, 78%)
LAB
lab(77.51% -15.38 65.57)
LCH
lch(77.51% 67.35 103.20)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 1%, 70%, 22%)

Etymology

Acid
adjective

Latin acidus, sour — sharing root with English acrid and acerbic. As a color modifier, acid implies a saturated-and-citric-and-zingy quality, the bright color of lemon-and-lime citrus-fruit-flesh and acid-yellow fluorescent-pigment surfaces. Sits at the bright-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to acidic and electric in usage.

Primrose
noun

Primula vulgaris, the European primrose whose pale yellow flowers appear in early spring — prima rosa (first rose) for its early bloom. The color refers to a fresh primrose in March: a soft, slightly cool pale yellow with the satin finish of five-petaled flower with darker yellow center. Cooler than cowslip.

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.

#c7c53b
Original
#d5bd23
Protanopia
#d7c245
Deuteranopia
#d5b8aa
Tritanopia
#bbbbbb
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
1.83:1
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
11.48:1

Related Colors

Canvas