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Kindled Primrose

#c9b845
Notes

Kindled Primrose (#C9B845) 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 (52°, 55%, 53%) 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
#c9b845
RGB
rgb(201, 184, 69)
HSL
hsl(52, 55%, 53%)
HWB
hwb(52 27% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.6% 0.134 100.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7769 0.7239 0.3473)
HSV
hsv(52, 66%, 79%)
LAB
lab(74.27% -7.35 58.45)
LCH
lch(74.27% 58.91 97.17)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 8%, 66%, 21%)

Etymology

Kindled
adjective

Old Norse kynda, to set on fire — past-participle of kindle. As a color modifier, kindled implies a saturated-and-newly-lit quality, the bright color of autumn-bonfire-and-stove-fire initial-combustion emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to ignited and aflame 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.

#c9b845
Original
#c9b336
Protanopia
#cdba4c
Deuteranopia
#d8aba0
Tritanopia
#b3b3b3
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
2.01:1
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
10.43:1

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
##C9B845
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7769 0.7239 0.3473)
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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