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Pellucid Nasturtium

#cc8c6a
Notes

Pellucid Nasturtium (#CC8C6A) is a true orange 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 (21°, 49%, 61%) 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#cc8c6a
RGB
rgb(204, 140, 106)
HSL
hsl(21, 49%, 61%)
HWB
hwb(21 42% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(69.6% 0.092 48.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7631 0.5598 0.4373)
HSV
hsv(21, 48%, 80%)
LAB
lab(63.87% 20.45 27.95)
LCH
lch(63.87% 34.64 53.81)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 31%, 48%, 20%)

Etymology

Pellucid
adjective

Latin pellūcidus, transparent — derived from per-lūcēre (to shine through). As a color modifier, pellucid implies a clear-and-translucent quality where the hue reads with optical clarity and minimal turbidity. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to lucid and translucent in usage.

Nasturtium
noun

Tropaeolum majus, the South American climbing plant naturalized as a kitchen-garden flower across Europe. Nasturtium (from the Latin naris-torquere, nose-twisting, for the peppery flavor) has edible leaves and saturated red-orange flowers. The color refers to a fresh T. majus bloom: a saturated, slightly red orange with the satin finish of bee-pollinated flower. Brighter than carrot.

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.

#cc8c6a
Original
#9d9367
Protanopia
#aca06a
Deuteranopia
#dc8183
Tritanopia
#979797
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
2.79:1
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
7.53:1

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
##CC8C6A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7631 0.5598 0.4373)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.092

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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