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Incandescent Pelt Goldenrod

#daa428
Notes

Incandescent Pelt Goldenrod (#DAA428) 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 (42°, 71%, 51%) 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
#daa428
RGB
rgb(218, 164, 40)
HSL
hsl(42, 71%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(42 16% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.0% 0.144 82.7)
HSV
hsv(42, 82%, 85%)
LAB
lab(70.60% 9.28 66.26)
LCH
lch(70.60% 66.91 82.03)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 25%, 82%, 15%)

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.

Pelt
modifier

Old French pellete, small-skin. As a color modifier, pelt implies a fur-with-skin-and-hide quality, the visual register of fur-trapper-and-Hudson-Bay-Pelt hand-trapped-and-skinned beaver-and-otter-and-mink hand-trapped-fur-pelt-and-hide surfaces under Hudson-Bay-and-fur-trapper hand-trapped pelt-and-hide trading-post light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to hide and fur 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.

#daa428
Original
#baa506
Protanopia
#c7b22f
Deuteranopia
#ed938d
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
9.32:1

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