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Strobing Amber

#fbb618
Notes

Strobing Amber (#FBB618) is a true amber with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (42°, 97%, 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 azure. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#fbb618
RGB
rgb(251, 182, 24)
HSL
hsl(42, 97%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(42 9% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(81.9% 0.166 80.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.9436 0.7249 0.2686)
HSV
hsv(42, 90%, 98%)
LAB
lab(78.48% 13.61 78.07)
LCH
lch(78.48% 79.25 80.11)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 27%, 90%, 2%)

Etymology

Strobing
adjective

Greek stróbos, whirling — present-participle of strobe. As a color modifier, strobing implies a saturated-and-pulse-flashing quality, the bright color of concert-strobe-light and photographic-strobe high-frequency-pulse light emission. Sits at the bright-and-flashing end of the grid, parallel to flashing and pulsating in usage.

Amber
noun

Fossilized tree resin — pine and conifer sap that flowed sixty million years ago and slowly polymerized in Baltic and Dominican forests. The color refers to a polished cabochon of true Baltic amber: a warm, slightly translucent gold-orange with the depth of resin and the occasional inclusion of trapped insects. Softer than honey, deeper than topaz, with the mineral light of a fossil that still feels organic.

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.

#fbb618
Original
#d1b800
Protanopia
#e1c924
Deuteranopia
#ffa29c
Tritanopia
#b9b9b9
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
1.78:1
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
11.81:1

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
##FBB618
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.9436 0.7249 0.2686)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.166

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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