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Tracer Canvas

#cdb345
Notes

Tracer Canvas (#CDB345) is a true amber 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 (49°, 58%, 54%) 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
#cdb345
RGB
rgb(205, 179, 69)
HSL
hsl(49, 58%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(49 27% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.9% 0.131 95.8)
HSV
hsv(49, 66%, 80%)
LAB
lab(73.32% -3.03 57.56)
LCH
lch(73.32% 57.64 93.02)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 13%, 66%, 20%)

Etymology

Tracer
adjective

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Canvas
noun

A heavyweight plain-weave cotton or linen fabric — used for ship sails (the original meaning), painter's canvas, and military tent construction. The color refers to undyed natural cotton canvas: a soft, slightly cool pale tan with the textured matte finish of plant-fiber weave.

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.

#cdb345
Original
#c5af37
Protanopia
#cbb84b
Deuteranopia
#dda69c
Tritanopia
#b1b1b1
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
2.07:1
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
10.13:1

Related Colors

Canvas