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Throbbing Atrium Goldenrod

#d4a01f
Notes

Throbbing Atrium Goldenrod (#D4A01F) 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 (43°, 74%, 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
#d4a01f
RGB
rgb(212, 160, 31)
HSL
hsl(43, 74%, 48%)
HWB
hwb(43 12% 17%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.5% 0.144 83.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8000 0.6356 0.2457)
HSV
hsv(43, 85%, 83%)
LAB
lab(68.93% 8.55 67.21)
LCH
lch(68.93% 67.75 82.75)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 25%, 85%, 17%)

Etymology

Throbbing
adjective

Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — present-participle of throb, with sound-and-action mimicry. As a color modifier, throbbing implies a saturated-and-pulsing-and-resonant quality, the bright color of bass-drop-and-rave-light low-frequency rhythm-pulse emission. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to pulsating and strobing in usage.

Atrium
modifier

Latin atrium, Roman-house-courtyard. As a color modifier, atrium implies a Roman-and-modern-courtyard-with-skylight quality, the visual register of Roman-Pompeii-and-modern-Mid-Century-Modern-atrium hand-built central-courtyard-with-skylight atrium-and-impluvium-and-courtyard architectural surfaces under Roman-and-Mid-Century-Modern atrium-skylight light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to loggia and quad 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.

#d4a01f
Original
#b6a000
Protanopia
#c2ae27
Deuteranopia
#e79089
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
2.37:1
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
8.85:1

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
##D4A01F
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8000 0.6356 0.2457)
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.

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