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Lustrous Cane Goldenrod

#d9a423
Notes

Lustrous Cane Goldenrod (#D9A423) 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°, 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
#d9a423
RGB
rgb(217, 164, 35)
HSL
hsl(43, 72%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(43 14% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(74.9% 0.145 83.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8190 0.6515 0.2577)
HSV
hsv(43, 84%, 85%)
LAB
lab(70.47% 8.70 67.61)
LCH
lch(70.47% 68.17 82.67)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 24%, 84%, 15%)

Etymology

Lustrous
adjective

From the Latin lustrare, to illuminate — used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues with the slight specular shine of polished metal or silk. Lustrous green, lustrous gold: the implication is moderate-to-high saturation combined with surface reflectivity. Sits at the bright-and-glossy corner alongside gleaming.

Cane
modifier

Old French canne, reed / cane. As a color modifier, cane implies a hand-cut-bamboo-or-rattan quality, the visual register of English-and-Edwardian-and-Asian-cane hand-cut-and-woven-cane bamboo-and-rattan-and-wicker hand-cut-cane-and-rattan surfaces under English-and-Edwardian-and-Asian hand-cut-cane-and-rattan furniture-and-craft light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to bark and hemp 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.

#d9a423
Original
#baa400
Protanopia
#c7b22b
Deuteranopia
#ec938d
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.26:1
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
9.28:1

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
##D9A423
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8190 0.6515 0.2577)
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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