colors
Back to gallery

Coruscating Castor Goldenrod

#cea126
Notes

Coruscating Castor Goldenrod (#CEA126) 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 (44°, 69%, 48%) 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
#cea126
RGB
rgb(206, 161, 38)
HSL
hsl(44, 69%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(44 15% 19%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.1% 0.139 86.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7803 0.6383 0.2577)
HSV
hsv(44, 82%, 81%)
LAB
lab(68.57% 5.58 64.63)
LCH
lch(68.57% 64.87 85.07)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 22%, 82%, 19%)

Etymology

Coruscating
adjective

Latin coruscāns, flashing — present-participle of coruscāre. As a color modifier, coruscating implies a saturated-and-rapidly-flashing quality, the bright color of lightning-strike atmospheric-electrical-discharge against the night-sky. Sits at the bright-and-flashing end of the grid, parallel to flashing and flickering in usage.

Castor
modifier

Greek Κάστωρ, Gemini-twin-and-horseman. As a color modifier, castor implies a Gemini-twin-and-mortal-brother quality, the visual register of Gemini-Castor-and-Pollux-twin hand-Gemini-twin-and-mortal-brother Gemini-Castor-and-Pollux-twin-and-Argonaut castor-and-Gemini-twin-and-mortal-brother surfaces under Gemini-Castor-and-Pollux-twin-and-Argonaut spring-Gemini-and-Bortle-1-sky stellar-twin-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to pollux and spica 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.

#cea126
Original
#b6a003
Protanopia
#c0ac2e
Deuteranopia
#e0928a
Tritanopia
#a2a2a2
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
2.40:1
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
8.75:1

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
##CEA126
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7803 0.6383 0.2577)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.139

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