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Striking Sodiumlight

#fbc957
Notes

Striking Sodiumlight (#FBC957) 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 (42°, 95%, 66%) 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
#fbc957
RGB
rgb(251, 201, 87)
HSL
hsl(42, 95%, 66%)
HWB
hwb(42 34% 2%)
OKLCH
oklch(85.9% 0.141 85.1)
HSV
hsv(42, 65%, 98%)
LAB
lab(83.43% 5.98 61.90)
LCH
lch(83.43% 62.19 84.49)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 20%, 65%, 2%)

Etymology

Striking
adjective

The progressive participle of strike, to hit. Used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues that command immediate attention. Striking red, striking blue: the implication is saturation combined with visual impact. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside bold and punchy.

Sodiumlight
noun

The amber light produced by sodium-vapor street lamps — the dominant nighttime urban color from the 1950s through the early 2000s, before LED retrofits. The color refers to a sodium-lit suburban street at night: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep amber with the slight monochromaticity of sodium-D-line emission.

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.

#fbc957
Original
#e0c84a
Protanopia
#ecd55c
Deuteranopia
#ffb8b1
Tritanopia
#cbcbcb
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
1.54:1
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
13.59:1

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