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Throbbing Advent Goldenrod

#dbd868
Notes

Throbbing Advent Goldenrod (#DBD868) is a true yellow 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 (58°, 61%, 63%) 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
#dbd868
RGB
rgb(219, 216, 104)
HSL
hsl(58, 61%, 63%)
HWB
hwb(58 41% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(86.2% 0.135 107.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8568 0.8475 0.4706)
HSV
hsv(58, 53%, 86%)
LAB
lab(84.57% -13.67 54.79)
LCH
lch(84.57% 56.47 104.00)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 1%, 53%, 14%)

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.

Advent
modifier

Latin adventus, arrival. As a color modifier, advent implies a December-Pre-Christmas-and-purple quality, the visual register of Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican Advent-period purple-and-pink-vestment-and-wreath-and-candle liturgical surfaces under Advent-period candlelit-purple-and-pink ecclesiastical light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to yule and easter 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.

#dbd868
Original
#e7d15d
Protanopia
#ead56e
Deuteranopia
#e9ccbf
Tritanopia
#d1d1d1
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
1.50:1
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
14.03:1

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
##DBD868
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8568 0.8475 0.4706)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.135

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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