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Spotlit Altair Goldenrod

#dcaf1f
Notes

Spotlit Altair Goldenrod (#DCAF1F) 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 (46°, 75%, 49%) 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
#dcaf1f
RGB
rgb(220, 175, 31)
HSL
hsl(46, 75%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(46 12% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.3% 0.152 89.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8349 0.6931 0.2618)
HSV
hsv(46, 86%, 86%)
LAB
lab(73.53% 4.06 71.32)
LCH
lch(73.53% 71.43 86.74)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 20%, 86%, 14%)

Etymology

Spotlit
adjective

English compound spot + lit — past-participle of spotlight. As a color modifier, spotlit implies a saturated-and-narrow-beam-illuminated quality, the bright color of theatrical-stage-and-museum-display directed-spotlight focused-beam illumination. Sits at the bright-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to sunlit and brilliant in usage.

Altair
modifier

Arabic al-nasr-al-tā'ir, the-flying-eagle. As a color modifier, altair implies a fast-spinning-and-summer-triangle quality, the visual register of Aquila-Eagle-and-Summer-Triangle-Altair hand-fast-spinning-and-summer-triangle Aquila-Eagle-and-Summer-Triangle-and-Bortle-1-sky altair-and-fast-spinning-and-summer-triangle surfaces under Aquila-Eagle-and-Summer-Triangle-and-Bortle-1-sky July-and-August-summer-vista white-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and deneb 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.

#dcaf1f
Original
#c5ad00
Protanopia
#d0ba2a
Deuteranopia
#ef9f96
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
2.06:1
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
10.19:1

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
##DCAF1F
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8349 0.6931 0.2618)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.152

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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