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Hyper Swirl Goldenrod

#dcad30
Notes

Hyper Swirl Goldenrod (#DCAD30) 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 (44°, 71%, 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
#dcad30
RGB
rgb(220, 173, 48)
HSL
hsl(44, 71%, 53%)
HWB
hwb(44 19% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.0% 0.144 86.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8339 0.6856 0.2921)
HSV
hsv(44, 78%, 86%)
LAB
lab(73.10% 5.62 65.95)
LCH
lch(73.10% 66.19 85.12)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 21%, 78%, 14%)

Etymology

Hyper
adjective

Greek hyper, over / beyond — sharing root with Latin super. As a color modifier, hyper implies a saturated-and-over-the-top-active quality where the hue exceeds normal visual amplitude with maximum-stimulation register. Sits at the bright-and-over-active end of the grid, parallel to manic and frenetic in usage.

Swirl
modifier

Middle English swirlen, to-whirl-in-eddies. As a color modifier, swirl implies a curling-and-eddying-and-spiraling quality, the visual register of Van-Gogh-Starry-Night-and-Hokusai-Wave-swirl hand-curling-and-eddying-and-spiraling Van-Gogh-Starry-Night-and-Hokusai-Wave-and-Art-Nouveau swirled-and-curling-and-eddying-and-spiraling surfaces under Van-Gogh-Starry-Night-and-Hokusai-Wave-and-Art-Nouveau brush-stroke-and-cresting-wave-and-vine-tendril nocturne-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to eddy and stir 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.

#dcad30
Original
#c3ac16
Protanopia
#ceb937
Deuteranopia
#ef9d95
Tritanopia
#aeaeae
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
2.09:1
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
10.06:1

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
##DCAD30
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8339 0.6856 0.2921)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.144

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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