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Functional Floret

#c9c174
Notes

Functional Floret (#C9C174) 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 (54°, 44%, 62%) 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
#c9c174
RGB
rgb(201, 193, 116)
HSL
hsl(54, 44%, 62%)
HWB
hwb(54 45% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(80.0% 0.099 103.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7828 0.7579 0.4930)
HSV
hsv(54, 42%, 79%)
LAB
lab(77.17% -8.16 39.69)
LCH
lch(77.17% 40.52 101.62)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 4%, 42%, 21%)

Etymology

Functional
adjective

Latin fūnctiō, performance — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, functional implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-utilitarian quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern and Bauhaus form-follows-function design-aesthetic. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and utilitarian 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.

#c9c174
Original
#cebc6e
Protanopia
#d0c177
Deuteranopia
#d4b7ae
Tritanopia
#bdbdbd
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
1.85:1
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
11.36:1

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
##C9C174
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7828 0.7579 0.4930)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.099

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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