colors
Back to gallery

Scorching Stoa Goldenrod

#e3c75b
Notes

Scorching Stoa Goldenrod (#E3C75B) 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°, 71%, 62%) 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
#e3c75b
RGB
rgb(227, 199, 91)
HSL
hsl(48, 71%, 62%)
HWB
hwb(48 36% 11%)
OKLCH
oklch(83.3% 0.131 94.9)
HSV
hsv(48, 60%, 89%)
LAB
lab(80.70% -2.73 56.49)
LCH
lch(80.70% 56.56 92.76)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 12%, 60%, 11%)

Etymology

Scorching
adjective

Old English scorcnian, to dry up — present-participle of scorch. As a color modifier, scorching implies a saturated-and-burning-hot quality, the bright color of Mojave-Desert-and-Death-Valley mid-afternoon high-temperature surface-emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to searing and sizzling in usage.

Stoa
modifier

Greek stoa, Greek-colonnaded-walkway. As a color modifier, stoa implies a Greek-and-Athens-colonnaded-walkway quality, the visual register of Athenian-Stoa-of-Attalos hand-built colonnaded-walkway-and-marketplace stoa-and-arcade-and-bouleuterion classical-Greek architectural surfaces under Athenian-Stoa-of-Attalos colonnaded-walkway light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to agora and forum 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.

#e3c75b
Original
#d9c350
Protanopia
#e1cc60
Deuteranopia
#f4b9af
Tritanopia
#c5c5c5
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
1.67:1
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
12.59:1

Related Colors

Canvas