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Quickening Pall Goldenrod

#d5a103
Notes

Quickening Pall Goldenrod (#D5A103) 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 (45°, 97%, 42%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#d5a103
RGB
rgb(213, 161, 3)
HSL
hsl(45, 97%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(45 1% 16%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.8% 0.151 85.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8039 0.6395 0.2151)
HSV
hsv(45, 99%, 84%)
LAB
lab(69.22% 8.02 72.45)
LCH
lch(69.22% 72.90 83.68)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 24%, 99%, 16%)

Etymology

Quickening
adjective

Old English cwic, living / lively — present-participle of quicken. As a color modifier, quickening implies a saturated-and-coming-alive-and-active quality where the hue accelerates visual engagement. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to animated and invigorating in usage.

Pall
modifier

Latin pallium, cloak-or-funeral-cover. As a color modifier, pall implies a cloaked-and-shrouded-and-funereal quality, the visual register of Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican-pall hand-cloaked-and-shrouded-and-funereal Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican-and-Orthodox-funeral funeral-pall-and-coffin-shroud-and-altar-cloth surfaces under Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican funeral-pall-and-coffin-shroud cathedral-incense light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to gloom and shade 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.

#d5a103
Original
#b7a100
Protanopia
#c4af17
Deuteranopia
#e89089
Tritanopia
#a1a1a1
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
2.35:1
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
8.93:1

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
##D5A103
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8039 0.6395 0.2151)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.151

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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