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yellow · warm

#c2ac09

a dark, electric yellow · warm · closest name: Goldenrod

Token name suggestion: Shadow Citron

RGB
194, 172, 9
HSL
53°, 91%, 40%
CMYK
0, 11, 95, 24
Luminance
0.4099

#c2ac09 is a dark electric yellow, 53° on the wheel and 19/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.20:1). As text it scores 2.28:1 on white — use #837406 instead. Nearest name is Goldenrod, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(53 91% 40%)rgb(194 172 9)Base step 700AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #c2ac09 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#c2ac09
Hue
53°
yellow
Saturation
91%
electric
Lightness
40%
dark
Brightness
76%
HSV value
Perceived
66%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4099
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
19/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
9.20:1
Closest name
Goldenrod
ΔE2000 9
Chroma
71.8
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.741
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 9.3
Web-safe
#CC9900
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue53° of 360°
Saturation91%
Lightness40%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #c2ac09.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool19% 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
Red28%
Green72%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#c2ac09
HEX (8-digit)#c2ac09ff
RGBrgb(194, 172, 9)
RGBArgba(194, 172, 9, 1)
HSLhsl(53, 91%, 40%)
HSV / HSBhsv(53, 95%, 76%)
HWBhwb(53 4% 24%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 11%, 95%, 24%)
LABlab(70.2 -6.2 71.5)
LCHlch(70.2 71.8 94.9)
OKLCHoklch(0.741 0.152 100.0)
XYZ (D65)xyz(37.05, 41.00, 6.22)
Decimal12758025
Display P3color(display-p3 0.761 0.675 0.035)
Web-safe#CC9900

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #c2ac09;
background-color: #c2ac09;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #c2ac09;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#c2ac09] bg-[#c2ac09]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #c2ac09;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.761, green: 0.675, blue: 0.035)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.761, green: 0.675, blue: 0.035, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#C2AC09</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFC2AC09)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFC2AC09)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(9, 172, 194)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(194, 172, 9)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(194, 172, 9)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 194, 172, 9)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7608f, 0.6745f, 0.0353f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{194,172,9}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #c2ac09 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #c2ac09 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7A6C06, #EEEBD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #c2ac09 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: #FDFCF2;
  --brand-100: #FBF8E5;
  --brand-200: #F9F2C3;
  --brand-300: #FAEE94;
  --brand-400: #F8E55E;
  --brand-500: #F5DD29;
  --brand-600: #EAD00B;
  --brand-700: #c2ac09;
  --brand-800: #9C8A07;
  --brand-900: #70640A;
  --brand-950: #463F06;
  --brand: #c2ac09;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAFAF4;
  --brand-border: #EDE7C0;
  --brand-hover: #A08E07;
  --brand-pressed: #7E7006;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #242214;
    --brand-ink: #EEEBD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDFCF2',
        100: '#FBF8E5',
        200: '#F9F2C3',
        300: '#FAEE94',
        400: '#F8E55E',
        500: '#F5DD29',
        600: '#EAD00B',
        700: '#c2ac09',
        800: '#9C8A07',
        900: '#70640A',
        950: '#463F06',
        DEFAULT: '#c2ac09',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDFCF2,
  '100': #FBF8E5,
  '200': #F9F2C3,
  '300': #FAEE94,
  '400': #F8E55E,
  '500': #F5DD29,
  '600': #EAD00B,
  '700': #c2ac09,
  '800': #9C8A07,
  '900': #70640A,
  '950': #463F06,
);
$brand-base: #c2ac09;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDFCF2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBF8E5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F9F2C3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FAEE94", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F8E55E", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F5DD29", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#EAD00B", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#c2ac09", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9C8A07", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#70640A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#463F06", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #c2ac09 · 9.20:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.28:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.20:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #c2ac09 as text scores 2.28:1 on white and 9.20:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #7A6C06 at 2.31:1.

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
#837406 · 4.70:1
AA on white−13% L
#837406
The quick fox
#605604 · 7.42:1
AAA on white−20% L
#605604
The quick fox
#c2ac09 · 9.20:1
AA on blackalready passes
#c2ac09
The quick fox
#c2ac09 · 9.20:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#c2ac09

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #A59208 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
#c2ac09 on white: 2.28:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#c2ac09 on black: 9.20:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #c2ac09 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #c2ac09.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.28:1AaAa
Slate 502.18:1AaAa
Slate 1002.08:1AaAa
Slate 2001.85:1AaAa
Slate 3001.54:1AaAa
Slate 4001.12:1AaAa
Slate 5002.08:1AaAa
Slate 6003.32:1AaAa
Slate 7004.54:1AaAa
Slate 8006.41:1AaAa
Slate 9007.82:1AaAa
Black9.20:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #BEA700
deuteranopia · #C4AF1F
tritanopia · #D29E92

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. #c2ac09 is pinned to step 700; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FDFCF2
#FBF8E5
#F9F2C3
#FAEE94
#F8E55E
#F5DD29
#EAD00B
#c2ac09
#9C8A07
#70640A
#463F06
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FDFCF2Darkest = 950 · #463F06Text 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 0.038 100.0);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.061 100.0);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.091 100.0);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.119 100.0);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.140 100.0);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.152 100.0);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.152 100.0);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.143 100.0);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.128 100.0);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.107 100.0);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.084 100.0);
}

Colors that work with #c2ac09

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#EDE7C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B914B
Captions on the surface
Accent#054CC6
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7A6C06
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEFBE7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#242214
Dark-mode background
Hover#A08E07
One step down in lightness
Pressed#7E7006
Two steps down
Disabled#B3AE88
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#DFC500
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 #c2ac09

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 #7A6C06
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #A59208

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
  • Weight60/100
  • 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#091FC2
Analogous left#C25009
Analogous right#7BC209
Split-complement 1#097BC2
Split-complement 2#5009C2
Triadic 1#09C2AC
Triadic 2#AC09C2
Tetradic#09C250
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°53°

#c2ac09 sits at 53°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red76.1%
Green67.5%
Blue3.5%
R · 0–255
194
0xc2
G · 0–255
172
0xac
B · 0–255
9
0x09

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta11.3%
Yellow95.4%
Key (black)23.9%

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

Color previews

#c2ac09 text on a black background

contrast 9.20:1

Card sample

#c2ac09 text on a white background

contrast 2.28:1

Card sample

#c2ac09 on grey

2.08:1

#c2ac09 on its own surface

2.18:1

#c2ac09 on its dark surface

7.00:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #c2ac09;
Background color
Panel with #c2ac09 background
background-color: #c2ac09;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #c2ac09;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(194, 172, 9, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(194, 172, 9, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #c2ac09;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #c2ac09, #5DC209);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c2ac09, #2EC209);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #c2ac09;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #c2ac09;
caret-color: #c2ac09;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #c2ac09;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEFBE7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #c2ac09;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#c2ac09 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #c2ac09 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(194, 172, 9, 0.5)
rgb(194 172 9 / 50%)
#c2ac0980
hsl(53 91% 40% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #c2ac09 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#c2ac091a#F9F7E6
20%#c2ac0933#F3EECE
40%#c2ac0966#E7DE9D
60%#c2ac0999#DACD6B
80%#c2ac09cc#CEBD3A

Gradients from #c2ac09

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, #F4DA14, #c2ac09 45%, #7A6C06);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #c2ac09, #42A508);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #c2ac09, #091FC2);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F5DE31 0%, #c2ac09 45%, #7A6C06 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%, #F3500B 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #7CDF0A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7A6C06 0%, transparent 65%), #c2ac09;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #c2ac09

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.

#c2ac09 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 9.20:1.

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.

#c2ac09, answered

What color is #c2ac09?

#c2ac09 is a dark electric yellow, closest to Goldenrod (ΔE2000 9). It sits at 53° on the hue wheel with 91% saturation and 40% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #c2ac09?

rgb(194, 172, 9) — 194 red, 172 green and 9 blue out of 255, or 76.1% / 67.5% / 3.5% by channel.

What is #c2ac09 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(53, 91%, 40%) and hsv(53, 95%, 76%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #c2ac09 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4099 and perceived brightness is 66%, so black text on it reaches 9.20:1.

Should I use black or white text on #c2ac09?

Black. It scores 9.20:1 against #c2ac09, versus 2.28:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #c2ac09 accessible on a white background?

#c2ac09 on white scores 2.28:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #837406 to reach 4.5:1, or #605604 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #c2ac09?

#091FC2 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #097BC2 and #5009C2, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #c2ac09?

For interface work: #FAFAF4 as the surface, #EDE7C0 for borders, #9B914B for secondary text, #054CC6 as an accent and #7A6C06 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #C25009 and #7BC209 stays calm, while #091FC2 is the loudest partner.

What is #c2ac09 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 11%, 95%, 24%). 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 #c2ac09 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 19 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #C27D09; nudged cooler, #95C407.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #c2ac09?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 9.3 away. That is a visible difference, so define #c2ac09 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #c2ac09 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#c2ac09] or text-[#c2ac09], 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 #c2ac09 with 50% opacity?

rgba(194, 172, 9, 0.5), or #c2ac0980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E1D684; over black, #615605.

Is #c2ac09 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9900, ΔE2000 9.3 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #c2ac09 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 #c2ac09?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F4DA14, #c2ac09 45%, #7A6C06). For more colour, a short hue run to #42A508 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #c2ac09 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #c2ac09 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.