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Torrid Floret

#c9ad3a
Notes

Torrid Floret (#C9AD3A) 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 (48°, 57%, 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
#c9ad3a
RGB
rgb(201, 173, 58)
HSL
hsl(48, 57%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(48 23% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.2% 0.134 95.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7702 0.6825 0.3109)
HSV
hsv(48, 71%, 79%)
LAB
lab(71.29% -2.20 59.87)
LCH
lch(71.29% 59.91 92.10)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 14%, 71%, 21%)

Etymology

Torrid
adjective

Latin torridus, parched / scorching — sharing root with torrēre (to dry by heat). As a color modifier, torrid implies a saturated-and-tropical-hot quality, the bright color of equatorial-Saharan-and-Sonoran-desert mid-summer high-temperature surface-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to scorching and fiery in usage.

Floret
noun

A small individual flower in a clustered inflorescence — particularly the small yellow florets of composite-family flowers (sunflower, daisy, calendula). The color refers to a single sunflower floret: a saturated, slightly red yellow with the matte finish of small disc-floret. Brighter than corn.

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.

#c9ad3a
Original
#bfaa29
Protanopia
#c6b240
Deuteranopia
#d9a096
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
2.21:1
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
9.52:1

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
##C9AD3A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7702 0.6825 0.3109)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.134

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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