colors
Back to gallery

Dependable Ki-iro

#dcd280
Notes

Dependable Ki-iro (#DCD280) is a true amber 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 (53°, 57%, 68%) 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
#dcd280
RGB
rgb(220, 210, 128)
HSL
hsl(53, 57%, 68%)
HWB
hwb(53 50% 14%)
OKLCH
oklch(85.4% 0.104 102.3)
HSV
hsv(53, 42%, 86%)
LAB
lab(83.37% -8.02 41.80)
LCH
lch(83.37% 42.57 100.87)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 5%, 42%, 14%)

Etymology

Dependable
adjective

Latin dē-pendere, to hang from — adjectival suffix -able. As a color modifier, dependable implies a clear-and-trustworthy-and-consistent quality where the hue carries the visual register of consistently-performing-and-counted-on design-element. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to reliable and trustworthy in usage.

Ki-iro
noun

The Japanese word for yellow — built from ki (yellow) and iro (color). Used in the warm palette of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, kintsugi-repaired ceramics, and the gold-leafed wallpaper of Heian-period palaces. The color refers to ki-iro-painted byōbu folding screens: a saturated, slightly cool pure yellow with the matte finish of mineral-pigment-on-paper. The Japanese cousin of yellow.

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.

#dcd280
Original
#e0cd7a
Protanopia
#e3d283
Deuteranopia
#e8c8be
Tritanopia
#cecece
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
1.55:1
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
13.57:1

Related Colors

Canvas