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Incandescent Smock Goldenrod

#d6a623
Notes

Incandescent Smock Goldenrod (#D6A623) 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°, 72%, 49%) 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
#d6a623
RGB
rgb(214, 166, 35)
HSL
hsl(44, 72%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(44 14% 16%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.9% 0.145 86.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8099 0.6584 0.2586)
HSV
hsv(44, 84%, 84%)
LAB
lab(70.66% 6.32 67.64)
LCH
lch(70.66% 67.93 84.66)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 22%, 84%, 16%)

Etymology

Incandescent
adjective

Latin incandēscēns, growing-hot — present-participle of incandēscere, sharing root with candere (to shine). As a color modifier, incandescent implies a saturated-and-glowing-hot quality, the bright color of tungsten-filament-glow incandescent-lamp light. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to glowing and blazing in usage.

Smock
modifier

Old English smoc, loose-shift-or-shepherd's-smock. As a color modifier, smock implies a shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-pleated quality, the visual register of English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock hand-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-pleated English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-Sussex-Surrey-rural smock-and-shepherd's-smock surfaces under English-shepherd's-smock-and-artist's-smock-and-Sussex-Surrey-rural Sussex-Downs-and-Surrey-village shepherd-and-painter-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to frock and tunic 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.

#d6a623
Original
#bca500
Protanopia
#c7b22c
Deuteranopia
#e9968e
Tritanopia
#a7a7a7
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
2.25:1
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
9.34:1

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
##D6A623
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8099 0.6584 0.2586)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.145

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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