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Frantic Era Goldenrod

#e0a126
Notes

Frantic Era Goldenrod (#E0A126) 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 (40°, 75%, 51%) 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
#e0a126
RGB
rgb(224, 161, 38)
HSL
hsl(40, 75%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(40 15% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(75.1% 0.146 78.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8414 0.6416 0.2629)
HSV
hsv(40, 83%, 88%)
LAB
lab(70.51% 13.42 67.06)
LCH
lch(70.51% 68.39 78.68)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 28%, 83%, 12%)

Etymology

Frantic
adjective

Greek phrenitikós, frenzied — adjectival suffix, sharing root with phrenitis (delirium). As a color modifier, frantic implies a saturated-and-rushed-and-overactive quality, the bright color of Memphis-Group 1980s-design over-the-top saturated visual-rhythm. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to frenetic and manic in usage.

Era
modifier

Latin aera, epoch. As a color modifier, era implies a period-and-historical-epoch quality, the visual register of historical-period-and-epoch multi-decade period-correct epoch-marked-and-defining-period surfaces under historical-period epoch-defining mood-and-light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to age and cycle 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.

#e0a126
Original
#b9a301
Protanopia
#c8b32c
Deuteranopia
#f48f8a
Tritanopia
#a6a6a6
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
2.26:1
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
9.30:1

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
##E0A126
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8414 0.6416 0.2629)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.146

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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