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yellow · warm

#ada976

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

Token name suggestion: Signal Straw

RGB
173, 169, 118
HSL
56°, 25%, 57%
CMYK
0, 2, 32, 32
Luminance
0.3857

#ada976 is a balanced soft yellow, 56° on the wheel and 29/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (8.71:1). As text it scores 2.41:1 on white — use #7A7649 instead. Nearest name is Dark Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(56 25% 57%)rgb(173 169 118)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ada976 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ada976
Hue
56°
yellow
Saturation
25%
soft
Lightness
57%
balanced
Brightness
68%
HSV value
Perceived
65%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.3857
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
29/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
8.71:1
Closest name
Dark Khaki
ΔE2000 6.3
Chroma
27.7
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.726
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 19
Web-safe
#999966
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue56° of 360°
Saturation25%
Lightness57%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ada976.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool29% 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
Red23%
Green74%
Blue3%

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

Every format

HEX#ada976
HEX (8-digit)#ada976ff
RGBrgb(173, 169, 118)
RGBArgba(173, 169, 118, 1)
HSLhsl(56, 25%, 57%)
HSV / HSBhsv(56, 32%, 68%)
HWBhwb(56 46% 32%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 2%, 32%, 32%)
LABlab(68.4 -6.6 26.9)
LCHlch(68.4 27.7 103.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.726 0.069 104.2)
XYZ (D65)xyz(34.69, 38.57, 22.75)
Decimal11381110
Display P3color(display-p3 0.678 0.663 0.463)
Web-safe#999966

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ada976;
background-color: #ada976;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ada976;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ada976] bg-[#ada976]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ada976;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.678, green: 0.663, blue: 0.463)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.678, green: 0.663, blue: 0.463, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ADA976</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFADA976)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFADA976)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(118, 169, 173)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(173, 169, 118)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(173, 169, 118)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 173, 169, 118)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6784f, 0.6627f, 0.4627f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{173,169,118}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ada976 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ada976 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#504D30, #E8E7D9);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ada976 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: #F9F9F6;
  --brand-100: #F3F2ED;
  --brand-200: #E5E4D7;
  --brand-300: #D5D3B9;
  --brand-400: #C0BD96;
  --brand-500: #ada976;
  --brand-600: #99955C;
  --brand-700: #807C4C;
  --brand-800: #66633D;
  --brand-900: #4B492F;
  --brand-950: #2F2E1D;
  --brand: #ada976;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9F9F5;
  --brand-border: #E0DFCC;
  --brand-hover: #A09B60;
  --brand-pressed: #898552;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #232215;
    --brand-ink: #E8E7D9;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9F9F6',
        100: '#F3F2ED',
        200: '#E5E4D7',
        300: '#D5D3B9',
        400: '#C0BD96',
        500: '#ada976',
        600: '#99955C',
        700: '#807C4C',
        800: '#66633D',
        900: '#4B492F',
        950: '#2F2E1D',
        DEFAULT: '#ada976',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9F9F6,
  '100': #F3F2ED,
  '200': #E5E4D7,
  '300': #D5D3B9,
  '400': #C0BD96,
  '500': #ada976,
  '600': #99955C,
  '700': #807C4C,
  '800': #66633D,
  '900': #4B492F,
  '950': #2F2E1D,
);
$brand-base: #ada976;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#F9F9F6", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F3F2ED", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E5E4D7", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D5D3B9", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C0BD96", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#ada976", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#99955C", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#807C4C", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#66633D", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4B492F", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#2F2E1D", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ada976 · 8.71:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.41:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 8.71:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ada976 as text scores 2.41:1 on white and 8.71:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #504D30 at 3.56:1.

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
#7A7649 · 4.65:1
AA on white−19% L
#7A7649
The quick fox
#5D5A38 · 7.04:1
AAA on white−28% L
#5D5A38
The quick fox
#ada976 · 8.71:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ada976
The quick fox
#ada976 · 8.71:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ada976

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #99955C 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
#ada976 on white: 2.41:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ada976 on black: 8.71:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ada976 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ada976.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.41:1AaAa
Slate 502.30:1AaAa
Slate 1002.20:1AaAa
Slate 2001.95:1AaAa
Slate 3001.62:1AaAa
Slate 4001.06:1AaAa
Slate 5001.97:1AaAa
Slate 6003.14:1AaAa
Slate 7004.30:1AaAa
Slate 8006.07:1AaAa
Slate 9007.41:1AaAa
Black8.71:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #B2A573
deuteranopia · #B4A878
tritanopia · #B5A29C

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. #ada976 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.

#F9F9F6
#F3F2ED
#E5E4D7
#D5D3B9
#C0BD96
#ada976
#99955C
#807C4C
#66633D
#4B492F
#2F2E1D
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9F9F6Darkest = 950 · #2F2E1DText 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 0.017 104.2);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.028 104.2);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.041 104.2);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.054 104.2);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.064 104.2);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.069 104.2);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.069 104.2);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.065 104.2);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.058 104.2);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.048 104.2);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.038 104.2);
}

Colors that work with #ada976

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#F9F9F5
Tinted page background
Border#E0DFCC
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#908B56
Captions on the surface
Accent#7286B1
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#504D30
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F5F5EF
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#232215
Dark-mode background
Hover#A09B60
One step down in lightness
Pressed#898552
Two steps down
Disabled#D5D4BE
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BFBA79
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 #ada976

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 #504D30
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #99955C

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
  • Weight43/100
  • 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#767AAD
Analogous left#AD8E76
Analogous right#96AD76
Split-complement 1#7696AD
Split-complement 2#8E76AD
Triadic 1#76ADA9
Triadic 2#A976AD
Tetradic#76AD8E
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°56°

#ada976 sits at 56°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red67.8%
Green66.3%
Blue46.3%
R · 0–255
173
0xad
G · 0–255
169
0xa9
B · 0–255
118
0x76

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta2.3%
Yellow31.8%
Key (black)32.2%

Total ink coverage is 66%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ada976 text on a black background

contrast 8.71:1

Card sample

#ada976 text on a white background

contrast 2.41:1

Card sample

#ada976 on grey

2.20:1

#ada976 on its own surface

2.28:1

#ada976 on its dark surface

6.65:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ada976;
Background color
Panel with #ada976 background
background-color: #ada976;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ada976;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(173, 169, 118, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(173, 169, 118, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ada976;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ada976, #8CAD76);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ada976, #7FAD76);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ada976;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ada976;
caret-color: #ada976;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ada976;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F5F5EF;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ada976;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ada976 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ada976 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(173, 169, 118, 0.5)
rgb(173 169 118 / 50%)
#ada97680
hsl(56 25% 57% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ada976 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ada9761a#F7F6F1
20%#ada97633#EFEEE4
40%#ada97666#DEDDC8
60%#ada97699#CECBAD
80%#ada976cc#BDBA91

Gradients from #ada976

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, #C4C19C, #ada976 45%, #504D30);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ada976, #77A263);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ada976, #767AAD);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #CFCDB0 0%, #ada976 45%, #504D30 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #F9F9F5, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #C0A596 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #A0B989 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #504D30 0%, transparent 65%), #ada976;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ada976

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.

#ada976 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 8.71:1.

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.

#ada976, answered

What color is #ada976?

#ada976 is a balanced soft yellow, closest to Dark Khaki (ΔE2000 6.3). It sits at 56° on the hue wheel with 25% saturation and 57% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ada976?

rgb(173, 169, 118) — 173 red, 169 green and 118 blue out of 255, or 67.8% / 66.3% / 46.3% by channel.

What is #ada976 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(56, 25%, 57%) and hsv(56, 32%, 68%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ada976 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.3857 and perceived brightness is 65%, so black text on it reaches 8.71:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ada976?

Black. It scores 8.71:1 against #ada976, versus 2.41:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ada976 accessible on a white background?

#ada976 on white scores 2.41:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #7A7649 to reach 4.5:1, or #5D5A38 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ada976?

#767AAD sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #7696AD and #8E76AD, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ada976?

For interface work: #F9F9F5 as the surface, #E0DFCC for borders, #908B56 for secondary text, #7286B1 as an accent and #504D30 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #AD8E76 and #96AD76 stays calm, while #767AAD is the loudest partner.

What is #ada976 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 2%, 32%, 32%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #ada976 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 29 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #AD9576; nudged cooler, #9EAF74.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ada976?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 19 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ada976 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ada976 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ada976] or text-[#ada976], 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 #ada976 with 50% opacity?

rgba(173, 169, 118, 0.5), or #ada97680 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D6D4BB; over black, #57553B.

Is #ada976 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #999966, ΔE2000 5.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ada976 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 #ada976?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C4C19C, #ada976 45%, #504D30). For more colour, a short hue run to #77A263 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ada976 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ada976 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.