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yellow · warm

#ceac09

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

Token name suggestion: Shadow Citron

RGB
206, 172, 9
HSL
50°, 92%, 42%
CMYK
0, 17, 96, 19
Luminance
0.4265

#ceac09 is a dark electric yellow, 50° on the wheel and 16/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.53:1). As text it scores 2.20:1 on white — use #8A7306 instead. Nearest name is Goldenrod, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(50 92% 42%)rgb(206 172 9)Base step 700AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ceac09 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ceac09
Hue
50°
yellow
Saturation
92%
electric
Lightness
42%
dark
Brightness
81%
HSV value
Perceived
68%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4265
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
16/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
9.53:1
Closest name
Goldenrod
ΔE2000 5.9
Chroma
72.9
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.752
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 6.1
Web-safe
#CC9900
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue50° of 360°
Saturation92%
Lightness42%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ceac09.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool16% 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
Red31%
Green69%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#ceac09
HEX (8-digit)#ceac09ff
RGBrgb(206, 172, 9)
RGBArgba(206, 172, 9, 1)
HSLhsl(50, 92%, 42%)
HSV / HSBhsv(50, 96%, 81%)
HWBhwb(50 4% 19%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 17%, 96%, 19%)
LABlab(71.3 -0.9 72.9)
LCHlch(71.3 72.9 90.7)
OKLCHoklch(0.752 0.153 94.5)
XYZ (D65)xyz(40.26, 42.65, 6.37)
Decimal13544457
Display P3color(display-p3 0.808 0.675 0.035)
Web-safe#CC9900

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ceac09;
background-color: #ceac09;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ceac09;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ceac09] bg-[#ceac09]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ceac09;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.808, green: 0.675, blue: 0.035)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.808, green: 0.675, blue: 0.035, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#CEAC09</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFCEAC09)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFCEAC09)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(9, 172, 206)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(206, 172, 9)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(206, 172, 9)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 206, 172, 9)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8078f, 0.6745f, 0.0353f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{206,172,9}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ceac09 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ceac09 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#7A6605, #EEE9D3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ceac09 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: #FDFBF2;
  --brand-100: #FBF7E4;
  --brand-200: #F9F0C3;
  --brand-300: #FAE894;
  --brand-400: #F8DD5E;
  --brand-500: #F6D228;
  --brand-600: #EBC40A;
  --brand-700: #ceac09;
  --brand-800: #9C8207;
  --brand-900: #715F0A;
  --brand-950: #463B06;
  --brand: #ceac09;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAF9F4;
  --brand-border: #EDE5C0;
  --brand-hover: #AC8F08;
  --brand-pressed: #8A7306;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #242214;
    --brand-ink: #EEE9D3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FDFBF2',
        100: '#FBF7E4',
        200: '#F9F0C3',
        300: '#FAE894',
        400: '#F8DD5E',
        500: '#F6D228',
        600: '#EBC40A',
        700: '#ceac09',
        800: '#9C8207',
        900: '#715F0A',
        950: '#463B06',
        DEFAULT: '#ceac09',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FDFBF2,
  '100': #FBF7E4,
  '200': #F9F0C3,
  '300': #FAE894,
  '400': #F8DD5E,
  '500': #F6D228,
  '600': #EBC40A,
  '700': #ceac09,
  '800': #9C8207,
  '900': #715F0A,
  '950': #463B06,
);
$brand-base: #ceac09;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FDFBF2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FBF7E4", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F9F0C3", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#FAE894", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F8DD5E", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#F6D228", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#EBC40A", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#ceac09", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#9C8207", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#715F0A", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#463B06", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ceac09 · 9.53:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.20:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.53:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ceac09 as text scores 2.20:1 on white and 9.53:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #7A6605 at 2.55:1.

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
#8A7306 · 4.63:1
AA on white−14% L
#8A7306
The quick fox
#685605 · 7.19:1
AAA on white−21% L
#685605
The quick fox
#ceac09 · 9.53:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ceac09
The quick fox
#ceac09 · 9.53:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ceac09

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #AC8F08 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
#ceac09 on white: 2.20:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ceac09 on black: 9.53:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ceac09 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ceac09.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.20:1AaAa
Slate 502.11:1AaAa
Slate 1002.01:1AaAa
Slate 2001.79:1AaAa
Slate 3001.48:1AaAa
Slate 4001.16:1AaAa
Slate 5002.16:1AaAa
Slate 6003.44:1AaAa
Slate 7004.70:1AaAa
Slate 8006.64:1AaAa
Slate 9008.10:1AaAa
Black9.53:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C0A900
deuteranopia · #C9B31E
tritanopia · #E09D92

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. #ceac09 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.

#FDFBF2
#FBF7E4
#F9F0C3
#FAE894
#F8DD5E
#F6D228
#EBC40A
#ceac09
#9C8207
#715F0A
#463B06
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FDFBF2Darkest = 950 · #463B06Text 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 94.5);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.061 94.5);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.092 94.5);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.119 94.5);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.141 94.5);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.153 94.5);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.153 94.5);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.144 94.5);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.129 94.5);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.107 94.5);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.084 94.5);
}

Colors that work with #ceac09

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#FAF9F4
Tinted page background
Border#EDE5C0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B8D4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#055CD2
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#7A6605
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FEFAE7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#242214
Dark-mode background
Hover#AC8F08
One step down in lightness
Pressed#8A7306
Two steps down
Disabled#B8B190
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#ECC300
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 #ceac09

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 #7A6605
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #AC8F08

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
  • Weight58/100
  • 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#092BCE
Analogous left#CE4909
Analogous right#8ECE09
Split-complement 1#098ECE
Split-complement 2#4909CE
Triadic 1#09CEAC
Triadic 2#AC09CE
Tetradic#09CE49
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°50°

#ceac09 sits at 50°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red80.8%
Green67.5%
Blue3.5%
R · 0–255
206
0xce
G · 0–255
172
0xac
B · 0–255
9
0x09

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta16.5%
Yellow95.6%
Key (black)19.2%

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

Color previews

#ceac09 text on a black background

contrast 9.53:1

Card sample

#ceac09 text on a white background

contrast 2.20:1

Card sample

#ceac09 on grey

2.01:1

#ceac09 on its own surface

2.09:1

#ceac09 on its dark surface

7.25:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ceac09;
Background color
Panel with #ceac09 background
background-color: #ceac09;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ceac09;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(206, 172, 9, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(206, 172, 9, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ceac09;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ceac09, #6DCE09);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ceac09, #3CCE09);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ceac09;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ceac09;
caret-color: #ceac09;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ceac09;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FEFAE7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ceac09;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ceac09 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ceac09 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(206, 172, 9, 0.5)
rgb(206 172 9 / 50%)
#ceac0980
hsl(50 92% 42% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ceac09 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ceac091a#FAF7E6
20%#ceac0933#F5EECE
40%#ceac0966#EBDE9D
60%#ceac0999#E2CD6B
80%#ceac09cc#D8BD3A

Gradients from #ceac09

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, #F5D01F, #ceac09 45%, #7A6605);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ceac09, #4FB108);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ceac09, #092BCE);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F6D63D 0%, #ceac09 45%, #7A6605 100%);
Soft wash
Section backgrounds that stay readable
background: linear-gradient(180deg, #FAF9F4, #ffffff);
Mesh
Ambient background, no image weight
background: radial-gradient(60% 60% at 15% 20%, #F54C15 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #8FEB0A 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #7A6605 0%, transparent 65%), #ceac09;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ceac09

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.

#ceac09 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 9.53:1.

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.

#ceac09, answered

What color is #ceac09?

#ceac09 is a dark electric yellow, closest to Goldenrod (ΔE2000 5.9). It sits at 50° on the hue wheel with 92% saturation and 42% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ceac09?

rgb(206, 172, 9) — 206 red, 172 green and 9 blue out of 255, or 80.8% / 67.5% / 3.5% by channel.

What is #ceac09 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(50, 92%, 42%) and hsv(50, 96%, 81%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ceac09 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4265 and perceived brightness is 68%, so black text on it reaches 9.53:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ceac09?

Black. It scores 9.53:1 against #ceac09, versus 2.20:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ceac09 accessible on a white background?

#ceac09 on white scores 2.20:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #8A7306 to reach 4.5:1, or #685605 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ceac09?

#092BCE sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #098ECE and #4909CE, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ceac09?

For interface work: #FAF9F4 as the surface, #EDE5C0 for borders, #9B8D4B for secondary text, #055CD2 as an accent and #7A6605 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #CE4909 and #8ECE09 stays calm, while #092BCE is the loudest partner.

What is #ceac09 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 17%, 96%, 19%). 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 #ceac09 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 16 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #CE8109; nudged cooler, #A9D007.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ceac09?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 6.1 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ceac09 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ceac09 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ceac09] or text-[#ceac09], 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 #ceac09 with 50% opacity?

rgba(206, 172, 9, 0.5), or #ceac0980 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #E7D684; over black, #675605.

Is #ceac09 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CC9900, ΔE2000 6.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ceac09 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 #ceac09?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F5D01F, #ceac09 45%, #7A6605). For more colour, a short hue run to #4FB108 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ceac09 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ceac09 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.