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Scorching Manor Goldenrod

#cd9321
Notes

Scorching Manor Goldenrod (#CD9321) 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 (40°, 72%, 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#cd9321
RGB
rgb(205, 147, 33)
HSL
hsl(40, 72%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(40 13% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(70.2% 0.137 78.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7698 0.5859 0.2359)
HSV
hsv(40, 84%, 80%)
LAB
lab(64.93% 12.55 62.99)
LCH
lch(64.93% 64.23 78.73)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 28%, 84%, 20%)

Etymology

Scorching
adjective

Old English scorcnian, to dry up — present-participle of scorch. As a color modifier, scorching implies a saturated-and-burning-hot quality, the bright color of Mojave-Desert-and-Death-Valley mid-afternoon high-temperature surface-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to searing and sizzling in usage.

Manor
modifier

Latin manōrium, dwelling. As a color modifier, manor implies an English-aristocratic-country-house quality, the visual register of English-Manor-House hand-built timber-and-stone-and-tapestry hereditary-estate-and-tenant-village aristocratic surfaces under English-aristocratic-Manor-House hereditary-estate-and-pastoral country-day light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to throne and hall 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.

#cd9321
Original
#a99500
Protanopia
#b7a327
Deuteranopia
#df837e
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
2.70:1
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
7.79:1

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
##CD9321
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7698 0.5859 0.2359)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.137

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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