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Caffeinated Horn Goldenrod

#daa932
Notes

Caffeinated Horn Goldenrod (#DAA932) 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°, 69%, 53%) 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
#daa932
RGB
rgb(218, 169, 50)
HSL
hsl(43, 69%, 53%)
HWB
hwb(43 20% 15%)
OKLCH
oklch(76.0% 0.140 84.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8250 0.6703 0.2928)
HSV
hsv(43, 77%, 85%)
LAB
lab(71.90% 6.96 64.06)
LCH
lch(71.90% 64.44 83.80)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 22%, 77%, 15%)

Etymology

Caffeinated
adjective

Modern French caféine — past-participle of caffeinate. As a color modifier, caffeinated implies a saturated-and-jumpy-and-active quality, the bright color of Red-Bull-and-Monster energy-drink-can label-design saturated-and-energizing palette. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to jazzed and wired in usage.

Horn
modifier

Old English horn, horn. As a color modifier, horn implies a translucent-keratin quality, the visual register of cattle-horn-and-deer-antler hand-shaped-and-polished translucent-keratin button-and-comb-and-knife-handle horn-and-antler surfaces under translucent-horn-and-antler hand-polished light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to bone and pith 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.

#daa932
Original
#bea91c
Protanopia
#cab538
Deuteranopia
#ed9992
Tritanopia
#ababab
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
2.16:1
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
9.70:1

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
##DAA932
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8250 0.6703 0.2928)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.140

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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