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Live Helichrysum

#caef84
Notes

Live Helichrysum (#CAEF84) is a soft lime with a cool character. It leans cool, sitting on the blue, green, and violet side of the wheel. Quiet and dependable, a fit for product UI and data visualization. Its HSL profile (81°, 77%, 73%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary indigo. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#caef84
RGB
rgb(202, 239, 132)
HSL
hsl(81, 77%, 73%)
HWB
hwb(81 52% 6%)
OKLCH
oklch(90.2% 0.140 124.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8204 0.9329 0.5682)
HSV
hsv(81, 45%, 94%)
LAB
lab(89.84% -28.74 47.65)
LCH
lch(89.84% 55.65 121.10)
CMYK
cmyk(15%, 0%, 45%, 6%)

Etymology

Live
adjective

Old English libban, to live — used as a color word since the nineteenth century for hues that read as active or animate. Live wire, live color: the implication is luminance combined with the optical impression of internal motion. Sits in the bright-bucket center alongside vivid and vibrant.

Helichrysum
noun

The genus Helichrysum — Mediterranean composite-family plants whose dried yellow flower bracts retain their color for years (also called strawflower). The color refers to dried Helichrysum bracts in a winter bouquet: a soft, slightly muted dry yellow with the matte papery finish of preserved 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.

#caef84
Original
#f9e37b
Protanopia
#f4e28a
Deuteranopia
#d0e6d6
Tritanopia
#dfdfdf
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
1.30:1
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
16.19:1

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
##CAEF84
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8204 0.9329 0.5682)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.140

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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