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Symmetrical Aspen

#cbc159
Notes

Symmetrical Aspen (#CBC159) is a true yellow 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 (55°, 52%, 57%) 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
#cbc159
RGB
rgb(203, 193, 89)
HSL
hsl(55, 52%, 57%)
HWB
hwb(55 35% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(79.8% 0.126 103.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7893 0.7582 0.4097)
HSV
hsv(55, 56%, 80%)
LAB
lab(77.02% -9.79 52.67)
LCH
lch(77.02% 53.57 100.53)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 5%, 56%, 20%)

Etymology

Symmetrical
adjective

Greek symmetría, due-proportion — adjectival suffix -al, derived from sym-metron (with-measure). As a color modifier, symmetrical implies a clear-and-balanced-and-mirrored quality where the hue carries the visual register of bilateral-or-radial proportional symmetry. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to balanced and aligned in usage.

Aspen
noun

Populus tremuloides, the North American quaking aspen whose leaves turn gold-yellow in autumn — the unifying fall color of Rocky Mountain landscapes. The color refers to an aspen grove at peak fall color: a saturated, slightly cool gold-yellow with the satin finish of carotenoid-rich autumn leaves. Cooler than ginkgo.

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.

#cbc159
Original
#d0bb4e
Protanopia
#d4c15e
Deuteranopia
#d9b5aa
Tritanopia
#bcbcbc
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
1.86:1
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
11.31:1

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
##CBC159
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7893 0.7582 0.4097)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.126

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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