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Effulgent Mimosa

#cdc34e
Notes

Effulgent Mimosa (#CDC34E) 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°, 56%, 55%) 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
#cdc34e
RGB
rgb(205, 195, 78)
HSL
hsl(55, 56%, 55%)
HWB
hwb(55 31% 20%)
OKLCH
oklch(80.3% 0.137 104.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7971 0.7660 0.3800)
HSV
hsv(55, 62%, 80%)
LAB
lab(77.62% -10.75 58.28)
LCH
lch(77.62% 59.27 100.45)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 5%, 62%, 20%)

Etymology

Effulgent
adjective

Latin effulgēns, shining-out — present-participle of effulgere, sharing root with fulgor (lightning). As a color modifier, effulgent implies a saturated-and-radiating-light-out quality, the bright color of Renaissance-Madonna halo-and-aureole gold-leaf-and-pigment emission. Sits at the bright-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to resplendent and radiant in usage.

Mimosa
noun

Two unrelated yellow flowers share this name: the European Acacia dealbata (silver wattle), whose tiny yellow puffballs cover entire trees in late winter, and the cocktail of champagne and orange juice. The color refers to a wattle inflorescence at full bloom: a soft, slightly green-shifted yellow with the powdery finish of pollen-rich flowers. The same name covers the yellow of the brunch drink — a happy etymological coincidence.

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.

#cdc34e
Original
#d3bd40
Protanopia
#d7c255
Deuteranopia
#dbb7aa
Tritanopia
#bdbdbd
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
1.82:1
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
11.51:1

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
##CDC34E
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7971 0.7660 0.3800)
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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