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yellow · warm

#acba65

a balanced, soft yellow · warm · closest name: Dark Khaki

Token name suggestion: Studio Honey

RGB
172, 186, 101
HSL
70°, 38%, 56%
CMYK
8, 0, 46, 27
Luminance
0.4483

#acba65 is a balanced soft yellow, 70° on the wheel and 33/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.97:1). As text it scores 2.11:1 on white — use #717C38 instead. Nearest name is Dark Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is lime.

hsl(70 38% 56%)rgb(172 186 101)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #acba65 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#acba65
Hue
70°
yellow
Saturation
38%
soft
Lightness
56%
balanced
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
68%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4483
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
33/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
9.97:1
Closest name
Dark Khaki
ΔE2000 5.5
Chroma
45.0
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.759
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
lime
500 · ΔE 11.7
Web-safe
#99CC66
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue70° of 360°
Saturation38%
Lightness56%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #acba65.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool33% 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
Red20%
Green78%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#acba65
HEX (8-digit)#acba65ff
RGBrgb(172, 186, 101)
RGBArgba(172, 186, 101, 1)
HSLhsl(70, 38%, 56%)
HSV / HSBhsv(70, 46%, 73%)
HWBhwb(70 40% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(8%, 0%, 46%, 27%)
LABlab(72.8 -17.8 41.3)
LCHlch(72.8 45.0 113.4)
OKLCHoklch(0.759 0.111 116.8)
XYZ (D65)xyz(36.92, 44.83, 19.02)
Decimal11319909
Display P3color(display-p3 0.675 0.729 0.396)
Web-safe#99CC66

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #acba65;
background-color: #acba65;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #acba65;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#acba65] bg-[#acba65]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #acba65;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.675, green: 0.729, blue: 0.396)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.675, green: 0.729, blue: 0.396, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ACBA65</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFACBA65)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFACBA65)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(101, 186, 172)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(172, 186, 101)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(172, 186, 101)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 172, 186, 101)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6745f, 0.7294f, 0.3961f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{172,186,101}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #acba65 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #acba65 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#505827, #E8ECD5);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #acba65 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: #F9FAF5;
  --brand-100: #F3F4EB;
  --brand-200: #E5E9D3;
  --brand-300: #D5DCB2;
  --brand-400: #C0CB8B;
  --brand-500: #acba65;
  --brand-600: #9AA94C;
  --brand-700: #808D3F;
  --brand-800: #667133;
  --brand-900: #4C5328;
  --brand-950: #2F3419;
  --brand: #acba65;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9FAF4;
  --brand-border: #E1E6C7;
  --brand-hover: #9EAE4E;
  --brand-pressed: #879543;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #222414;
    --brand-ink: #E8ECD5;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9FAF5',
        100: '#F3F4EB',
        200: '#E5E9D3',
        300: '#D5DCB2',
        400: '#C0CB8B',
        500: '#acba65',
        600: '#9AA94C',
        700: '#808D3F',
        800: '#667133',
        900: '#4C5328',
        950: '#2F3419',
        DEFAULT: '#acba65',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9FAF5,
  '100': #F3F4EB,
  '200': #E5E9D3,
  '300': #D5DCB2,
  '400': #C0CB8B,
  '500': #acba65,
  '600': #9AA94C,
  '700': #808D3F,
  '800': #667133,
  '900': #4C5328,
  '950': #2F3419,
);
$brand-base: #acba65;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9FAF5", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3F4EB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E5E9D3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D5DCB2", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C0CB8B", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#acba65", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9AA94C", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#808D3F", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#667133", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4C5328", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2F3419", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #acba65 · 9.97:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.11:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.97:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #acba65 as text scores 2.11:1 on white and 9.97:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #505827 at 3.60:1.

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
#717C38 · 4.52:1
AA on white−21% L
#717C38
The quick fox
#545D2A · 7.06:1
AAA on white−30% L
#545D2A
The quick fox
#acba65 · 9.97:1
AA on blackalready passes
#acba65
The quick fox
#acba65 · 9.97:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#acba65

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #8E9C46 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
#acba65 on white: 2.11:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#acba65 on black: 9.97:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #acba65 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #acba65.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.11:1AaAa
Slate 502.01:1AaAa
Slate 1001.92:1AaAa
Slate 2001.71:1AaAa
Slate 3001.42:1AaAa
Slate 4001.22:1AaAa
Slate 5002.26:1AaAa
Slate 6003.60:1AaAa
Slate 7004.91:1AaAa
Slate 8006.94:1AaAa
Slate 9008.47:1AaAa
Black9.97:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C4B25E
deuteranopia · #C3B369
tritanopia · #B4B2A6

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. #acba65 is pinned to step 500; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#F9FAF5
#F3F4EB
#E5E9D3
#D5DCB2
#C0CB8B
#acba65
#9AA94C
#808D3F
#667133
#4C5328
#2F3419
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9FAF5Darkest = 950 · #2F3419Text step on white = 800
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 0.028 116.8);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.044 116.8);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.067 116.8);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.087 116.8);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.102 116.8);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.111 116.8);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.111 116.8);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.104 116.8);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.093 116.8);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.078 116.8);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.061 116.8);
}

Colors that work with #acba65

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#F9FAF4
Tinted page background
Border#E1E6C7
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#8E9B4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#6169BE
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#505827
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6F7ED
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#222414
Dark-mode background
Hover#9EAE4E
One step down in lightness
Pressed#879543
Two steps down
Disabled#D0D4BB
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BACA69
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 #acba65

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

Works well for
  • Text and icons on dark surfaces
  • Charts, tags and secondary surfaces
  • Brand accents, badges and data highlights
  • Chart series and data categories
Use with care
  • Text of any size on white — fails WCAG AA
  • 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 #505827
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #8E9C46

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.

The muted chroma softens the association — it reads considered rather than loud, which suits long-form and data-heavy screens. The mid lightness keeps it versatile in both themes.

Worth knowing

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

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium
  • Weight44/100
  • 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#7365BA
Analogous left#BA9E65
Analogous right#82BA65
Split-complement 1#6582BA
Split-complement 2#9E65BA
Triadic 1#65ACBA
Triadic 2#BA65AC
Tetradic#65BA9E
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°70°

#acba65 sits at 70°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.5%
Green72.9%
Blue39.6%
R · 0–255
172
0xac
G · 0–255
186
0xba
B · 0–255
101
0x65

CMYK percentages

Cyan7.5%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow45.7%
Key (black)27.1%

Total ink coverage is 80%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#acba65 text on a black background

contrast 9.97:1

Card sample

#acba65 text on a white background

contrast 2.11:1

Card sample

#acba65 on grey

1.92:1

#acba65 on its own surface

2.01:1

#acba65 on its dark surface

7.49:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #acba65;
Background color
Panel with #acba65 background
background-color: #acba65;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #acba65;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(172, 186, 101, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(172, 186, 101, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #acba65;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #acba65, #73BA65);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acba65, #65BA6C);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #acba65;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #acba65;
caret-color: #acba65;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #acba65;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6F7ED;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #acba65;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#acba65 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #acba65 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, 186, 101, 0.5)
rgb(172 186 101 / 50%)
#acba6580
hsl(70 38% 56% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #acba65 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#acba651a#F7F8F0
20%#acba6533#EEF1E0
40%#acba6566#DEE3C1
60%#acba6599#CDD6A3
80%#acba65cc#BDC884

Gradients from #acba65

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, #C3CD8F, #acba65 45%, #505827);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #acba65, #58B150);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #acba65, #7365BA);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CED6A4 0%, #acba65 45%, #505827 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9FAF4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #CAAE88 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #8DC37A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #505827 0%, transparent 65%), #acba65;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #acba65

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.

#acba65 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

Converts to four-color process without much drama. Proof it anyway.

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 9.97:1.

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.

#acba65, answered

What color is #acba65?

#acba65 is a balanced soft yellow, closest to Dark Khaki (ΔE2000 5.5). It sits at 70° on the hue wheel with 38% saturation and 56% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #acba65?

rgb(172, 186, 101) — 172 red, 186 green and 101 blue out of 255, or 67.5% / 72.9% / 39.6% by channel.

What is #acba65 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(70, 38%, 56%) and hsv(70, 46%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #acba65 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4483 and perceived brightness is 68%, so black text on it reaches 9.97:1.

Should I use black or white text on #acba65?

Black. It scores 9.97:1 against #acba65, versus 2.11:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #acba65 accessible on a white background?

#acba65 on white scores 2.11:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #717C38 to reach 4.5:1, or #545D2A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #acba65?

#7365BA sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #6582BA and #9E65BA, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #acba65?

For interface work: #F9FAF4 as the surface, #E1E6C7 for borders, #8E9B4B for secondary text, #6169BE as an accent and #505827 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BA9E65 and #82BA65 stays calm, while #7365BA is the loudest partner.

What is #acba65 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(8%, 0%, 46%, 27%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #acba65 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 33 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BAA965; nudged cooler, #8DBC63.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #acba65?

The lime family — its 500 step is #84cc16, ΔE2000 11.7 away. That is a visible difference, so define #acba65 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #acba65 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#acba65] or text-[#acba65], 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 #acba65 with 50% opacity?

rgba(172, 186, 101, 0.5), or #acba6580 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6DDB2; over black, #565D33.

Is #acba65 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CC66, ΔE2000 7.8 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #acba65 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 moderate chroma the association is present but not shouted.

What gradient works with #acba65?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C3CD8F, #acba65 45%, #505827). For more colour, a short hue run to #58B150 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #acba65 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #acba65 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.