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yellow · warm

#aca608

a dark, electric yellow · warm · closest name: Dark Khaki

Token name suggestion: Dusk Honey

RGB
172, 166, 8
HSL
58°, 91%, 35%
CMYK
0, 4, 95, 33
Luminance
0.3606

#aca608 is a dark electric yellow, 58° on the wheel and 23/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.21:1). As text it scores 2.56:1 on white — use #7B7706 instead. Nearest name is Dark Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(58 91% 35%)rgb(172 166 8)Base step 800AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #aca608 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#aca608
Hue
58°
yellow
Saturation
91%
electric
Lightness
35%
dark
Brightness
67%
HSV value
Perceived
62%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3606
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
23/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
8.21:1
Closest name
Dark Khaki
ΔE2000 10
Chroma
69.3
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.707
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 14.3
Web-safe
#999900
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue58° of 360°
Saturation91%
Lightness35%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #aca608.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool23% cool

Reads warm. Warm and cool siblings keep the same lightness, so you can swap one in without redoing your contrast maths.

Luminance by channel
Red24%
Green76%
Blue0%

Green carries most of what the eye calls brightness — that is why WCAG weights it 0.7152.

Every format

HEX#aca608
HEX (8-digit)#aca608ff
RGBrgb(172, 166, 8)
RGBArgba(172, 166, 8, 1)
HSLhsl(58, 91%, 35%)
HSV / HSBhsv(58, 95%, 67%)
HWBhwb(58 3% 33%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 4%, 95%, 33%)
LABlab(66.6 -12.8 68.1)
LCHlch(66.6 69.3 100.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.707 0.150 107.1)
XYZ (D65)xyz(30.69, 36.06, 5.57)
Decimal11314696
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.651 0.031)
Web-safe#999900

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #aca608;
background-color: #aca608;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #aca608;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#aca608] bg-[#aca608]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #aca608;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.651, blue: 0.031)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.651, blue: 0.031, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ACA608</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFACA608)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFACA608)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(8, 166, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 166, 8)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 166, 8)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 166, 8)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.6510f, 0.0314f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,166,8}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #aca608 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #aca608 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7A7606, #EEEDD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #aca608 h s calc(l - 7));

Design tokens

The same ramp in the four formats a team actually needs. Paste one and the whole palette lands with it.

css custom propertiesclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: #FDFDF2;
  --brand-100: #FBFAE5;
  --brand-200: #F9F7C3;
  --brand-300: #FAF694;
  --brand-400: #F8F25E;
  --brand-500: #F5EE29;
  --brand-600: #EAE20B;
  --brand-700: #C3BC09;
  --brand-800: #aca608;
  --brand-900: #706D0A;
  --brand-950: #464406;
  --brand: #aca608;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAFAF4;
  --brand-border: #EDEBC0;
  --brand-hover: #8A8506;
  --brand-pressed: #686405;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #242414;
    --brand-ink: #EEEDD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDFDF2',
        100: '#FBFAE5',
        200: '#F9F7C3',
        300: '#FAF694',
        400: '#F8F25E',
        500: '#F5EE29',
        600: '#EAE20B',
        700: '#C3BC09',
        800: '#aca608',
        900: '#706D0A',
        950: '#464406',
        DEFAULT: '#aca608',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDFDF2,
  '100': #FBFAE5,
  '200': #F9F7C3,
  '300': #FAF694,
  '400': #F8F25E,
  '500': #F5EE29,
  '600': #EAE20B,
  '700': #C3BC09,
  '800': #aca608,
  '900': #706D0A,
  '950': #464406,
);
$brand-base: #aca608;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDFDF2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBFAE5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F9F7C3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FAF694", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F8F25E", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F5EE29", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#EAE20B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#C3BC09", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#aca608", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#706D0A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#464406", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$value": "#000000", "$type": "color" }
  }
}

Best text color

Only one of black and white can be right. This is the one, with the number that proves it.

Readable at a glance#000000 on #aca608 · 8.21:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.56:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.21:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #aca608 as text scores 2.56:1 on white and 8.21:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #7A7606 at 1.86:1.

Make it accessible

A contrast checker tells you that you failed. This tells you what to ship instead — same hue, same saturation, lightness moved only as far as WCAG demands.

The quick fox
#7B7706 · 4.68:1
AA on white−10% L
#7B7706
The quick fox
#5E5B04 · 7.06:1
AAA on white−16% L
#5E5B04
The quick fox
#aca608 · 8.21:1
AA on blackalready passes
#aca608
The quick fox
#aca608 · 8.21:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#aca608

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9D9807 is enough for headings on white. Non-text elements such as icons, chart strokes and focus rings also sit at 3:1 under WCAG 2.2 (1.4.11).

Accessibility — WCAG contrast

Aa
#aca608 on white: 2.56:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#aca608 on black: 8.21:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #aca608 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #aca608.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.56:1AaAa
Slate 502.44:1AaAa
Slate 1002.33:1AaAa
Slate 2002.07:1AaAa
Slate 3001.72:1AaAa
Slate 4001.00:1AaAa
Slate 5001.86:1AaAa
Slate 6002.96:1AaAa
Slate 7004.05:1AaAa
Slate 8005.72:1AaAa
Slate 9006.98:1AaAa
Black8.21:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B59F00
deuteranopia · #B8A41F
tritanopia · #BA9A8D

Roughly one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency. If any of the three panels above is hard to tell apart from a neighbouring colour in your palette, add a shape, an icon or a label so the meaning does not rest on hue alone.

Color scale — 50 to 950

A Tailwind-shaped ramp built around this exact hex. #aca608 is pinned to step 800; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FDFDF2
#FBFAE5
#F9F7C3
#FAF694
#F8F25E
#F5EE29
#EAE20B
#C3BC09
#aca608
#706D0A
#464406
Base = 800Lightest = 50 · #FDFDF2Darkest = 950 · #464406Text step on white = 900
Perceptual ramp — OKLCH

The same eleven steps expressed in OKLCH, where equal lightness numbers actually look equally spaced. HSL ramps go muddy in the yellows and washed out in the blues; this one does not. Modern browsers render it natively — the hex ramp above is the fallback.

50100200300400500600700800900950
oklch tokensclick to select
:root {
  --brand-50: oklch(0.97 0.038 107.1);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.060 107.1);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.090 107.1);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.117 107.1);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.138 107.1);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.150 107.1);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.150 107.1);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.141 107.1);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.126 107.1);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.105 107.1);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.083 107.1);
}

Colors that work with #aca608

Not a palette — a role sheet. Each swatch answers one question you will hit while building the component.

Text on it#000000
Black wins here
Surface#FAFAF4
Tinted page background
Border#EDEBC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B984B
Captions on the surface
Accent#0435B0
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7A7606
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEFDE7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#242414
Dark-mode background
Hover#8A8506
One step down in lightness
Pressed#686405
Two steps down
Disabled#AAA87A
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#C8C100
Offset from the fill so it reads
Light mode
Everything in its place

Surface, border, heading and body all derive from this one hue, so the screen stays coherent without a second palette.

Primary actionSecondaryBadge
Dark mode
Same hue, inverted

Lightness flips, hue holds. The accent stays the anchor in both themes.

Primary actionSecondaryAccent

In real components

The same eight roles, wired into the interface patterns you will actually build with them. Every state below is a computed value, not a mock-up.

Buttons and states
Save changesHoverPressedDisabled
OutlineSubtleLinkFocused
Form field
you@company.com

Focus ring uses the light variant so the field still reads as one shape.

Send me product updates
Notice
Your export is ready

The file stays available for seven days. Download it before it expires.

NewBetaDraft
Data
Storage used68%
Acme LtdActive
NorthwindTrial
GlobexActive

How to use #aca608

Derived from its contrast, chroma and lightness — not from taste.

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Primary buttons and calls to action
  • Focus rings, active and selected states
  • Headers, footers and dark-mode surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • Full-page backgrounds — tiring over long sessions
  • Black text placed on it
  • Thin strokes and 1px borders — they disappear on light UI
  • Pairing with a same-lightness hue — edges vibrate
Minimum size as text on white
Not as text
Safe as a fill behind white type
No — use #7A7606
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9D9807

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

optimisticalertcheap-and-cheerfulvisible

The most visible hue at low light levels, which is why it owns warnings, hazard tape and value retail.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The low lightness adds weight and formality.

Worth knowing

Almost never passes contrast against white. Treat it as a surface or a marker, not as text.

Reads as
  • FormalityHigh
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight65/100
  • TemperatureWarm
  • ApproachabilityHigh

Colour associations are cultural and vary by market. Treat these as a starting point for a conversation with your audience, not a finding about them.

Similar colors

One move away from this hex in each direction. Every swatch is its own page.

Color relationships

The wheel positions with their names attached, so you can grab the one you actually need.

Complementary#080EAC
Analogous left#AC5408
Analogous right#60AC08
Split-complement 1#0860AC
Split-complement 2#5408AC
Triadic 1#08ACA6
Triadic 2#A608AC
Tetradic#08AC54
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°58°

#aca608 sits at 58°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green65.1%
Blue3.1%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
166
0xa6
B · 0–255
8
0x08

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta3.5%
Yellow95.3%
Key (black)32.5%

Total ink coverage is 131%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#aca608 text on a black background

contrast 8.21:1

Card sample

#aca608 text on a white background

contrast 2.56:1

Card sample

#aca608 on grey

2.33:1

#aca608 on its own surface

2.44:1

#aca608 on its dark surface

6.14:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #aca608;
Background color
Panel with #aca608 background
background-color: #aca608;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #aca608;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 166, 8, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 166, 8, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #aca608;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #aca608, #45AC08);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #aca608, #1CAC08);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #aca608;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #aca608;
caret-color: #aca608;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #aca608;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEFDE7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #aca608;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#aca608 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #aca608 over white; the bottom row is the same alpha over a checkerboard, so you can see what survives on a photo or a video.

Bottom row of hexes is the flattened result over white — use those when a design tool refuses transparency, or when you need a solid fallback.

alpha in every syntaxclick to select
rgba(172, 166, 8, 0.5)
rgb(172 166 8 / 50%)
#aca60880
hsl(58 91% 35% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #aca608 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#aca6081a#F7F6E6
20%#aca60833#EEEDCE
40%#aca60866#DEDB9C
60%#aca60899#CDCA6B
80%#aca608cc#BDB839

Gradients from #aca608

Six recipes, each built from this hex and shown with the exact CSS that produced it.

Elevation
Same hue, three lightnesses — safe anywhere
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #E6DE0B, #aca608 45%, #7A7606);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #aca608, #2E8F07);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #aca608, #080EAC);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F4EC1B 0%, #aca608 45%, #7A7606 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAFAF4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #DD5A0A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #60C909 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7A7606 0%, transparent 65%), #aca608;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #aca608

Shades — darker

Tints — lighter

Tones — desaturated

Color harmonies

Nearest named colors

Ranked with CIEDE2000 across all 139 CSS keywords. Under ΔE 2 the eye stops telling them apart; over ΔE 10 they are plainly different colors.

#aca608 in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
RetailLeisureEnergyWarning systems
Common UI roles
ButtonsLinksFocus statesCharts
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

On screens

Holds up across typical panel gamma. Still worth checking on an uncalibrated laptop, where mid-tones shift most.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 8.21:1.

Explore nearby colors

Small, deliberate steps away from this hex — useful when you are hunting for the version of a colour that finally feels right.

#aca608, answered

What color is #aca608?

#aca608 is a dark electric yellow, closest to Dark Khaki (ΔE2000 10). It sits at 58° on the hue wheel with 91% saturation and 35% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #aca608?

rgb(172, 166, 8) — 172 red, 166 green and 8 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 65.1% / 3.1% by channel.

What is #aca608 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(58, 91%, 35%) and hsv(58, 95%, 67%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #aca608 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3606 and perceived brightness is 62%, so black text on it reaches 8.21:1.

Should I use black or white text on #aca608?

Black. It scores 8.21:1 against #aca608, versus 2.56:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #aca608 accessible on a white background?

#aca608 on white scores 2.56:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #7B7706 to reach 4.5:1, or #5E5B04 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #aca608?

#080EAC sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #0860AC and #5408AC, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #aca608?

For interface work: #FAFAF4 as the surface, #EDEBC0 for borders, #9B984B for secondary text, #0435B0 as an accent and #7A7606 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AC5408 and #60AC08 stays calm, while #080EAC is the loudest partner.

What is #aca608 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 4%, 95%, 33%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — a color this saturated sits outside most CMYK gamuts and will print duller than it looks here.

Is #aca608 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 23 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AC7208; nudged cooler, #77AE06.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #aca608?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 14.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #aca608 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #aca608 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#aca608] or text-[#aca608], or register the whole ramp under theme.extend.colors.brand so you get bg-brand-500 and friends. The generated 50–950 scale on this page is ready to paste into your config.

What is #aca608 with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 166, 8, 0.5), or #aca60880 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6D384; over black, #565304.

Is #aca608 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999900, ΔE2000 4.7 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #aca608 mean?

As a yellow, it reads optimistic, alert, cheap-and-cheerful. The most visible hue at low light levels, which is why it owns warnings, hazard tape and value retail. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #aca608?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #E6DE0B, #aca608 45%, #7A7606). For more colour, a short hue run to #2E8F07 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #aca608 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #aca608 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.