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Manic Morn Goldenrod

#cad42d
Notes

Manic Morn Goldenrod (#CAD42D) is a true yellow with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (64°, 66%, 50%) 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
#cad42d
RGB
rgb(202, 212, 45)
HSL
hsl(64, 66%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(64 18% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(83.5% 0.175 113.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7993 0.8301 0.3164)
HSV
hsv(64, 79%, 83%)
LAB
lab(81.75% -22.12 74.04)
LCH
lch(81.75% 77.27 106.63)
CMYK
cmyk(5%, 0%, 79%, 17%)

Etymology

Manic
adjective

Greek manikós, raving / mad — sharing root with mania. As a color modifier, manic implies a saturated-and-overstimulated-and-extreme quality, the bright color of Andy-Warhol-and-Pop-Art late-Pop-Art repeated-and-multiplied portrait color schemes. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to hyper and frenetic in usage.

Morn
modifier

Old English morgen, morning. As a color modifier, morn implies an early-light-and-dew quality, the visual register of English-pasture-and-meadow early-morning dew-soaked-grass-and-mist atmospheric soft-low-light surfaces under early-morning meadow light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to day and dawn 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.

#cad42d
Original
#e4ca00
Protanopia
#e4cd3d
Deuteranopia
#d8c7b6
Tritanopia
#c6c6c6
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
1.62:1
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
12.97:1

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
##CAD42D
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7993 0.8301 0.3164)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.175

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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