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Steady Linden

#efd579
Notes

Steady Linden (#EFD579) is a soft 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 (47°, 79%, 71%) places it in the highly saturated band at a light 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
#efd579
RGB
rgb(239, 213, 121)
HSL
hsl(47, 79%, 71%)
HWB
hwb(47 47% 6%)
OKLCH
oklch(87.6% 0.116 94.0)
HSV
hsv(47, 49%, 94%)
LAB
lab(85.67% -2.63 48.45)
LCH
lch(85.67% 48.52 93.10)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 11%, 49%, 6%)

Etymology

Steady
adjective

Old English stede, place, position — drifted to mean firm and unmoving. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as reliable rather than dramatic. Steady gray, steady green: moderate saturation combined with optical calmness. Sits in the crisp-bucket center alongside settled.

Linden
noun

The genus Tilia — the European linden or basswood, whose pale yellow-green flowers perfume European parks in early summer and yield the tilleul tisane of French herbal medicine. The color refers to fresh linden flowers in June: a soft, slightly green-shifted pale yellow with the matte finish of small clustered florets.

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

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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.

#efd579
Original
#e6d171
Protanopia
#edda7d
Deuteranopia
#ffc8bf
Tritanopia
#d4d4d4
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
1.45:1
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
14.46:1

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