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yellow · warm

#afbe5e

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

Token name suggestion: Signal Honey

RGB
175, 190, 94
HSL
69°, 43%, 56%
CMYK
8, 0, 51, 26
Luminance
0.4675

#afbe5e is a balanced soft yellow, 69° on the wheel and 33/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (10.35:1). As text it scores 2.03:1 on white — use #6F7A31 instead. Nearest name is Dark Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is lime.

hsl(69 43% 56%)rgb(175 190 94)Base step 500AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #afbe5e is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#afbe5e
Hue
69°
yellow
Saturation
43%
soft
Lightness
56%
balanced
Brightness
75%
HSV value
Perceived
69%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4675
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
33/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Soft
Best ink
Black
10.35:1
Closest name
Dark Khaki
ΔE2000 6
Chroma
50.1
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.769
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
lime
500 · ΔE 10.5
Web-safe
#99CC66
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue69° of 360°
Saturation43%
Lightness56%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #afbe5e.

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
Red19%
Green79%
Blue2%

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

Every format

HEX#afbe5e
HEX (8-digit)#afbe5eff
RGBrgb(175, 190, 94)
RGBArgba(175, 190, 94, 1)
HSLhsl(69, 43%, 56%)
HSV / HSBhsv(69, 51%, 75%)
HWBhwb(69 37% 25%)
CMYKcmyk(8%, 0%, 51%, 26%)
LABlab(74.0 -19.4 46.3)
LCHlch(74.0 50.1 112.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.769 0.123 116.7)
XYZ (D65)xyz(38.11, 46.75, 17.60)
Decimal11517534
Display P3color(display-p3 0.686 0.745 0.369)
Web-safe#99CC66

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #afbe5e;
background-color: #afbe5e;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #afbe5e;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#afbe5e] bg-[#afbe5e]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #afbe5e;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.686, green: 0.745, blue: 0.369)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.686, green: 0.745, blue: 0.369, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#AFBE5E</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFAFBE5E)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFAFBE5E)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(94, 190, 175)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(175, 190, 94)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(175, 190, 94)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 175, 190, 94)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.6863f, 0.7451f, 0.3686f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{175,190,94}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #afbe5e 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #afbe5e 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#525B25, #E9EDD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #afbe5e 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: #F3F5EB;
  --brand-200: #E6EAD1;
  --brand-300: #D7DFAF;
  --brand-400: #C3CF87;
  --brand-500: #afbe5e;
  --brand-600: #9EAE46;
  --brand-700: #84913B;
  --brand-800: #69742F;
  --brand-900: #4E5525;
  --brand-950: #313517;
  --brand: #afbe5e;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9FAF4;
  --brand-border: #E2E8C5;
  --brand-hover: #A0B147;
  --brand-pressed: #89983D;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #222414;
    --brand-ink: #E9EDD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#F9FAF5',
        100: '#F3F5EB',
        200: '#E6EAD1',
        300: '#D7DFAF',
        400: '#C3CF87',
        500: '#afbe5e',
        600: '#9EAE46',
        700: '#84913B',
        800: '#69742F',
        900: '#4E5525',
        950: '#313517',
        DEFAULT: '#afbe5e',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #F9FAF5,
  '100': #F3F5EB,
  '200': #E6EAD1,
  '300': #D7DFAF,
  '400': #C3CF87,
  '500': #afbe5e,
  '600': #9EAE46,
  '700': #84913B,
  '800': #69742F,
  '900': #4E5525,
  '950': #313517,
);
$brand-base: #afbe5e;
$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": "#F3F5EB", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#E6EAD1", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#D7DFAF", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#C3CF87", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#afbe5e", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#9EAE46", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#84913B", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#69742F", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#4E5525", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#313517", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #afbe5e · 10.35:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.03:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 10.35:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #afbe5e as text scores 2.03:1 on white and 10.35:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #525B25 at 3.59:1.

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
#6F7A31 · 4.66:1
AA on white−22% L
#6F7A31
The quick fox
#555D26 · 7.05:1
AAA on white−30% L
#555D26
The quick fox
#afbe5e · 10.35:1
AA on blackalready passes
#afbe5e
The quick fox
#afbe5e · 10.35:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#afbe5e

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #8D9B3F 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
#afbe5e on white: 2.03:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#afbe5e on black: 10.35:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #afbe5e as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #afbe5e.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.03:1AaAa
Slate 501.94:1AaAa
Slate 1001.85:1AaAa
Slate 2001.65:1AaAa
Slate 3001.37:1AaAa
Slate 4001.26:1AaAa
Slate 5002.35:1AaAa
Slate 6003.73:1AaAa
Slate 7005.10:1AaAa
Slate 8007.21:1AaAa
Slate 9008.80:1AaAa
Black10.35:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C9B655
deuteranopia · #C8B763
tritanopia · #B8B5A8

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. #afbe5e 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
#F3F5EB
#E6EAD1
#D7DFAF
#C3CF87
#afbe5e
#9EAE46
#84913B
#69742F
#4E5525
#313517
Base = 500Lightest = 50 · #F9FAF5Darkest = 950 · #313517Text 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 0.031 116.7);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.049 116.7);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.074 116.7);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.096 116.7);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.113 116.7);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.123 116.7);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.123 116.7);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.115 116.7);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.103 116.7);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.086 116.7);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.067 116.7);
}

Colors that work with #afbe5e

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#E2E8C5
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#8E9B4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#5A63C3
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#525B25
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F6F8ED
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#222414
Dark-mode background
Hover#A0B147
One step down in lightness
Pressed#89983D
Two steps down
Disabled#CFD3BA
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#BDCE62
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 #afbe5e

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 #525B25
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #8D9B3F

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#6D5EBE
Analogous left#BE9D5E
Analogous right#7FBE5E
Split-complement 1#5E7FBE
Split-complement 2#9D5EBE
Triadic 1#5EAFBE
Triadic 2#BE5EAF
Tetradic#5EBE9D
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°69°

#afbe5e sits at 69°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red68.6%
Green74.5%
Blue36.9%
R · 0–255
175
0xaf
G · 0–255
190
0xbe
B · 0–255
94
0x5e

CMYK percentages

Cyan7.9%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow50.5%
Key (black)25.5%

Total ink coverage is 84%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#afbe5e text on a black background

contrast 10.35:1

Card sample

#afbe5e text on a white background

contrast 2.03:1

Card sample

#afbe5e on grey

1.85:1

#afbe5e on its own surface

1.93:1

#afbe5e on its dark surface

7.78:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #afbe5e;
Background color
Panel with #afbe5e background
background-color: #afbe5e;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #afbe5e;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(175, 190, 94, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(175, 190, 94, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #afbe5e;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #afbe5e, #6FBE5E);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afbe5e, #5EBE65);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #afbe5e;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #afbe5e;
caret-color: #afbe5e;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #afbe5e;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F6F8ED;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #afbe5e;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#afbe5e 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #afbe5e 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(175, 190, 94, 0.5)
rgb(175 190 94 / 50%)
#afbe5e80
hsl(69 43% 56% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #afbe5e 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#afbe5e1a#F7F9EF
20%#afbe5e33#EFF2DF
40%#afbe5e66#DFE5BF
60%#afbe5e99#CFD89E
80%#afbe5ecc#BFCB7E

Gradients from #afbe5e

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, #C5D08A, #afbe5e 45%, #525B25);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #afbe5e, #53B549);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #afbe5e, #6D5EBE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #D0D89F 0%, #afbe5e 45%, #525B25 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%, #CDAD82 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #89C774 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #525B25 0%, transparent 65%), #afbe5e;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #afbe5e

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.

#afbe5e 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 10.35:1.

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.

#afbe5e, answered

What color is #afbe5e?

#afbe5e is a balanced soft yellow, closest to Dark Khaki (ΔE2000 6). It sits at 69° on the hue wheel with 43% saturation and 56% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #afbe5e?

rgb(175, 190, 94) — 175 red, 190 green and 94 blue out of 255, or 68.6% / 74.5% / 36.9% by channel.

What is #afbe5e in HSL and HSV?

hsl(69, 43%, 56%) and hsv(69, 51%, 75%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #afbe5e a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4675 and perceived brightness is 69%, so black text on it reaches 10.35:1.

Should I use black or white text on #afbe5e?

Black. It scores 10.35:1 against #afbe5e, versus 2.03:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #afbe5e accessible on a white background?

#afbe5e on white scores 2.03:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #6F7A31 to reach 4.5:1, or #555D26 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #afbe5e?

#6D5EBE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #5E7FBE and #9D5EBE, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #afbe5e?

For interface work: #F9FAF4 as the surface, #E2E8C5 for borders, #8E9B4B for secondary text, #5A63C3 as an accent and #525B25 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BE9D5E and #7FBE5E stays calm, while #6D5EBE is the loudest partner.

What is #afbe5e in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(8%, 0%, 51%, 26%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #afbe5e 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 #BEAA5E; nudged cooler, #8CC05C.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #afbe5e?

The lime family — its 500 step is #84cc16, ΔE2000 10.5 away. That is a visible difference, so define #afbe5e as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #afbe5e in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#afbe5e] or text-[#afbe5e], 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 #afbe5e with 50% opacity?

rgba(175, 190, 94, 0.5), or #afbe5e80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #D7DFAF; over black, #585F2F.

Is #afbe5e a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #99CC66, ΔE2000 7.5 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #afbe5e 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 #afbe5e?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #C5D08A, #afbe5e 45%, #525B25). For more colour, a short hue run to #53B549 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #afbe5e in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #afbe5e at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.