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Punchy Wallflower

#cabe4f
Notes

Punchy Wallflower (#CABE4F) 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°, 54%, 55%) 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
#cabe4f
RGB
rgb(202, 190, 79)
HSL
hsl(54, 54%, 55%)
HWB
hwb(54 31% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.0% 0.132 103.2)
HSV
hsv(54, 61%, 79%)
LAB
lab(76.04% -9.39 56.06)
LCH
lch(76.04% 56.85 99.51)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 6%, 61%, 21%)

Etymology

Punchy
adjective

A modern adjectival form of punch, to strike sharply. Used as a color word since the early twentieth century for hues that read as highly contrasting and visually loud. Punchy red, punchy yellow: the implication is full saturation combined with optical impact. Sits across the bold and bright buckets, near vivid and striking.

Wallflower
noun

Erysimum cheiri, the European biennial whose fragrant yellow-orange flowers cover medieval-castle walls (the source of the name) and cottage gardens in late spring. The color refers to a fresh wallflower bloom in May: a saturated, slightly red yellow with the satin finish of four-petaled mustard-family flower.

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.

#cabe4f
Original
#ceb842
Protanopia
#d2be55
Deuteranopia
#d8b2a6
Tritanopia
#b9b9b9
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
1.91:1
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
10.99:1

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