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Aflame Lyra Goldenrod

#e5e22d
Notes

Aflame Lyra Goldenrod (#E5E22D) is a true yellow with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (59°, 78%, 54%) 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
#e5e22d
RGB
rgb(229, 226, 45)
HSL
hsl(59, 78%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(59 18% 10%)
OKLCH
oklch(88.7% 0.182 108.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.8960 0.8867 0.3360)
HSV
hsv(59, 80%, 90%)
LAB
lab(87.60% -17.68 79.96)
LCH
lch(87.60% 81.89 102.47)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 1%, 80%, 10%)

Etymology

Aflame
adjective

Old English on-flamme, on-fire. As a color modifier, aflame implies a saturated-and-burning-bright quality, the bright color of autumn-Maple-and-Oak peak-color deciduous-foliage and Bonfire-Night large-flame fire emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to flaming and blazing in usage.

Lyra
modifier

Greek λύρα, lyre-of-Orpheus. As a color modifier, lyra implies a small-summer-constellation-and-Orpheus-lyre quality, the visual register of summer-Lyra-and-Orpheus-lyre hand-small-summer-constellation-and-Orpheus-lyre summer-Lyra-and-Orpheus-lyre-and-Bortle-1-sky lyra-and-small-summer-constellation-and-Orpheus-lyre surfaces under summer-Lyra-and-Orpheus-lyre-and-Bortle-1-sky July-and-August-summer-zenith ring-nebula-and-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and cygnus 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.

#e5e22d
Original
#f5d900
Protanopia
#f8de3e
Deuteranopia
#f6d3c2
Tritanopia
#d6d6d6
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
1.38:1
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
15.25:1

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
##E5E22D
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.8960 0.8867 0.3360)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.182

This color is chromatic enough that authoring it as P3 native (instead of clamping to sRGB) gives a perceptibly more saturated render on wide-gamut displays — modern Macs, iPhones, iPads, and most recent OLED laptops.

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