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Throbbing Cygnus Goldenrod

#daec58
Notes

Throbbing Cygnus Goldenrod (#DAEC58) is a true yellow with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (67°, 80%, 64%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
#daec58
RGB
rgb(218, 236, 88)
HSL
hsl(67, 80%, 64%)
HWB
hwb(67 35% 7%)
OKLCH
oklch(90.2% 0.170 115.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8680 0.9233 0.4386)
HSV
hsv(67, 63%, 93%)
LAB
lab(89.67% -24.98 67.33)
LCH
lch(89.67% 71.82 110.35)
CMYK
cmyk(8%, 0%, 63%, 7%)

Etymology

Throbbing
adjective

Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — present-participle of throb, with sound-and-action mimicry. As a color modifier, throbbing implies a saturated-and-pulsing-and-resonant quality, the bright color of bass-drop-and-rave-light low-frequency rhythm-pulse emission. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to pulsating and strobing in usage.

Cygnus
modifier

Latin cygnus, swan. As a color modifier, cygnus implies a swan-flying-and-Northern-Cross quality, the visual register of Cygnus-Swan-and-Northern-Cross hand-swan-flying-and-Northern-Cross Cygnus-Swan-and-Northern-Cross-and-Bortle-1-sky cygnus-and-swan-flying-and-Northern-Cross surfaces under Cygnus-Swan-and-Northern-Cross-and-Bortle-1-sky August-and-September-late-summer-zenith Milky-Way-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to deneb and lyra 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.

#daec58
Original
#fce145
Protanopia
#fae362
Deuteranopia
#e7dfcd
Tritanopia
#dddddd
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
1.30:1
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
16.12:1

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
##DAEC58
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8680 0.9233 0.4386)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.170

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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