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Sharp Toast

#cca822
Notes

Sharp Toast (#CCA822) is a true amber with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (47°, 71%, 47%) 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
#cca822
RGB
rgb(204, 168, 34)
HSL
hsl(47, 71%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(47 13% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.3% 0.144 92.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7773 0.6641 0.2558)
HSV
hsv(47, 83%, 80%)
LAB
lab(70.15% 0.84 67.08)
LCH
lch(70.15% 67.09 89.29)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 18%, 83%, 20%)

Etymology

Sharp
adjective

Old English scearp, cutting, pointed — applied metaphorically to color since the seventeenth century for hues that read as definite and edge-defined. Sharp red, sharp green: the implication is saturation combined with high-contrast crispness. Sits in the bright-bucket center alongside crisp and clear, with a slightly more incisive edge.

Toast
noun

Sugar-and-protein browning in bread — the Maillard reaction at the surface of a slice held against radiant heat. The color refers to a piece of medium-toasted white bread: a soft, warm tan with the matte finish of a dehydrated crust. Lighter than caramel, drier than honey, with the breakfast-table familiarity of an everyday color.

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.

#cca822
Original
#bca500
Protanopia
#c4b02c
Deuteranopia
#dd9990
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.28:1
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
9.19:1

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
##CCA822
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7773 0.6641 0.2558)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.144

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.

Related Colors

Canvas