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Prismatic Column Goldenrod

#c9a833
Notes

Prismatic Column Goldenrod (#C9A833) 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 (47°, 60%, 49%) 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
#c9a833
RGB
rgb(201, 168, 51)
HSL
hsl(47, 60%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(47 20% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.1% 0.135 92.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7673 0.6637 0.2902)
HSV
hsv(47, 75%, 79%)
LAB
lab(69.94% 0.13 61.24)
LCH
lch(69.94% 61.24 89.88)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 16%, 75%, 21%)

Etymology

Prismatic
adjective

Greek prísma, prism — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, prismatic implies a saturated-and-multi-spectrum-decomposed quality, the bright color of crystal-prism and cut-glass-chandelier light-refraction-spectrum decomposition. Sits at the bright-and-shifting end of the grid, parallel to iridescent and spectral in usage.

Column
modifier

Latin columna, column. As a color modifier, column implies a vertical-Doric-and-Ionic-and-Corinthian quality, the visual register of Greek-and-Roman-Column hand-cut Doric-Ionic-Corinthian fluted-and-capital classical-column architectural surfaces under Greek-and-Roman classical-column architectural light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to pillar and plinth in usage.

Goldenrod
noun

Solidago, the late-summer wildflower of North American meadows whose tall sprays of small yellow flowers signal the end of the growing season. The color refers to the flower head at full bloom: a warm, slightly muted yellow-orange with the matte finish of small clustered florets. Cooler than mustard, deeper than dandelion. The state flower of Kentucky and Nebraska, a pollinator magnet, and the original native dye for early American homespun.

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.

#c9a833
Original
#bba51f
Protanopia
#c3af3a
Deuteranopia
#d99a91
Tritanopia
#a7a7a7
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
2.30:1
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
9.13:1

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
##C9A833
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7673 0.6637 0.2902)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.135

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.

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