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Rousing Mead

#dcb106
Notes

Rousing Mead (#DCB106) 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 (48°, 95%, 44%) 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
#dcb106
RGB
rgb(220, 177, 6)
HSL
hsl(48, 95%, 44%)
HWB
hwb(48 2% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(77.7% 0.158 91.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8360 0.7006 0.2367)
HSV
hsv(48, 97%, 86%)
LAB
lab(73.98% 2.63 75.80)
LCH
lch(73.98% 75.85 88.01)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 20%, 97%, 14%)

Etymology

Rousing
adjective

Old English rūsan, to rush — present-participle of rouse. As a color modifier, rousing implies a saturated-and-wakening-and-active quality, the bright color of dawn-chorus-and-morning-bell atmospheric-and-aural stimulation. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to awakening and invigorating in usage.

Mead
noun

Honey wine — fermented honey-and-water, one of the oldest known alcoholic beverages, central to Norse and Anglo-Saxon halls. The color refers to a young Polish miód pitny: a soft, slightly cool warm gold-yellow with the optical clarity of honey-derived alcohol. Warmer than champagne, lighter than whiskey.

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.

#dcb106
Original
#c7af00
Protanopia
#d1bb1d
Deuteranopia
#efa097
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
2.03:1
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
10.33:1

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
##DCB106
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8360 0.7006 0.2367)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.158

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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