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Sunlit Daffodil

#f9dd6c
Notes

Sunlit Daffodil (#F9DD6C) 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 (48°, 92%, 70%) 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
#f9dd6c
RGB
rgb(249, 221, 108)
HSL
hsl(48, 92%, 70%)
HWB
hwb(48 42% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(89.9% 0.136 95.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.9582 0.8706 0.4902)
HSV
hsv(48, 57%, 98%)
LAB
lab(88.42% -3.69 58.05)
LCH
lch(88.42% 58.17 93.64)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 11%, 57%, 2%)

Etymology

Sunlit
adjective

Old English sunne (sun) plus past-participle līehted. As a color modifier, sunlit implies a saturated-and-direct-sunlight-illuminated quality, the bright color of southern-Mediterranean and Greek-island afternoon-sun direct-illumination surface emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to radiant and brilliant in usage.

Daffodil
noun

Narcissus pseudonarcissus, the wild daffodil of British and European woodland. The color is the trumpet-shaped corona of a fully open daffodil at peak spring: a saturated, slightly orange-shifted yellow with the satiny finish of waxy petal tissue. Warmer than lemon, brighter than buttercup, with the seasonal weight of a flower that arrives before the trees have leaves.

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.

#f9dd6c
Original
#f0d961
Protanopia
#f8e271
Deuteranopia
#ffcfc4
Tritanopia
#dbdbdb
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
1.35:1
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
15.59:1

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
##F9DD6C
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.9582 0.8706 0.4902)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.136

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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