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Sunlit Margarita

#c8b83c
Notes

Sunlit Margarita (#C8B83C) 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 (53°, 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
#c8b83c
RGB
rgb(200, 184, 60)
HSL
hsl(53, 56%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(53 24% 22%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.4% 0.141 101.8)
HSV
hsv(53, 70%, 78%)
LAB
lab(74.12% -8.28 61.88)
LCH
lch(74.12% 62.43 97.62)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 8%, 70%, 22%)

Etymology

Sunlit
adjective

Old English sunne (sun) plus past-participle līehted. As a color modifier, sunlit implies a saturated-and-direct-sunlight-illuminated quality, the bright color of southern-Mediterranean and Greek-island afternoon-sun direct-illumination surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to radiant and brilliant in usage.

Margarita
noun

The Mexican-American cocktail of tequila, lime, and triple sec — invented in the late 1930s on the Mexico–US border and served in a salt-rimmed glass. Margarita color refers specifically to a fresh-poured margarita in a coupe: a soft, slightly cool warm yellow-green with the optical clarity of citrus-and-spirits.

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.

#c8b83c
Original
#c9b229
Protanopia
#ceb944
Deuteranopia
#d7ab9f
Tritanopia
#b2b2b2
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
2.02:1
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
10.38:1

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