colors
Back to gallery

Phosphoric Tortilla

#d8c551
Notes

Phosphoric Tortilla (#D8C551) is a true amber 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 (52°, 63%, 58%) 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
#d8c551
RGB
rgb(216, 197, 81)
HSL
hsl(52, 63%, 58%)
HWB
hwb(52 32% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(81.8% 0.136 100.0)
HSV
hsv(52, 63%, 85%)
LAB
lab(79.11% -6.96 58.89)
LCH
lch(79.11% 59.30 96.74)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 9%, 63%, 15%)

Etymology

Phosphoric
adjective

Greek phōsphóros, light-bringer — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, phosphoric implies a saturated-and-cool-glow quality, the bright color of match-tip-strike and firefly phosphorus-emission luminescence. Sits at the bright-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to phosphorescent and fluorescent in usage.

Tortilla
noun

The Mexican corn flatbread — the staple grain of Mesoamerican civilization since pre-Columbian times. Tortilla color refers to the warm pale yellow of fresh-pressed maize tortillas: a soft, slightly red-shifted warm pale yellow with the matte finish of cooked masa. Cooler than polenta.

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.

#d8c551
Original
#d6c044
Protanopia
#dcc757
Deuteranopia
#e8b8ac
Tritanopia
#c1c1c1
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
1.75:1
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
12.03:1

Related Colors

Canvas