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green · warm

#ecf9ae

a light, electric green · warm · closest name: Pale Goldenrod

Token name suggestion: Drift Moss

RGB
236, 249, 174
HSL
70°, 86%, 83%
CMYK
5, 0, 30, 2
Luminance
0.8864

#ecf9ae is a light electric green, 70° on the wheel and 34/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (18.73:1). As text it scores 1.12:1 on white — use #677B09 instead. Nearest name is Pale Goldenrod, nearest Tailwind family is lime.

hsl(70 86% 83%)rgb(236 249 174)Base step 200AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #ecf9ae is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#ecf9ae
Hue
70°
green
Saturation
86%
electric
Lightness
83%
light
Brightness
98%
HSV value
Perceived
93%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.8864
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
34/100 cool
Color family
Green
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
18.73:1
Closest name
Pale Goldenrod
ΔE2000 6
Chroma
38.2
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.955
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
lime
500 · ΔE 18.9
Web-safe
#FFFF99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue70° of 360°
Saturation86%
Lightness83%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #ecf9ae.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool34% 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%
Green76%
Blue3%

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

Every format

HEX#ecf9ae
HEX (8-digit)#ecf9aeff
RGBrgb(236, 249, 174)
RGBArgba(236, 249, 174, 1)
HSLhsl(70, 86%, 83%)
HSV / HSBhsv(70, 30%, 98%)
HWBhwb(70 68% 2%)
CMYKcmyk(5%, 0%, 30%, 2%)
LABlab(95.4 -16.0 34.7)
LCHlch(95.4 38.2 114.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.955 0.097 116.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(76.11, 88.64, 53.14)
Decimal15530414
Display P3color(display-p3 0.925 0.976 0.682)
Web-safe#FFFF99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #ecf9ae;
background-color: #ecf9ae;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #ecf9ae;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#ecf9ae] bg-[#ecf9ae]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #ecf9ae;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.925, green: 0.976, blue: 0.682)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.925, green: 0.976, blue: 0.682, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#ECF9AE</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFECF9AE)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFECF9AE)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(174, 249, 236)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(236, 249, 174)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(236, 249, 174)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 236, 249, 174)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.9255f, 0.9765f, 0.6824f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{236,249,174}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #ecf9ae 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #ecf9ae 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#647709, #E9EED3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #ecf9ae 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: #FBFDF2;
  --brand-100: #F7FAE5;
  --brand-200: #ecf9ae;
  --brand-300: #E6F797;
  --brand-400: #DAF362;
  --brand-500: #CEF02E;
  --brand-600: #BFE411;
  --brand-700: #9FBE0E;
  --brand-800: #80980B;
  --brand-900: #5D6E0D;
  --brand-950: #3A4508;
  --brand: #ecf9ae;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #F9FAF4;
  --brand-border: #E5EDC0;
  --brand-hover: #E4F78D;
  --brand-pressed: #DCF46B;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #222414;
    --brand-ink: #E9EED3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FBFDF2',
        100: '#F7FAE5',
        200: '#ecf9ae',
        300: '#E6F797',
        400: '#DAF362',
        500: '#CEF02E',
        600: '#BFE411',
        700: '#9FBE0E',
        800: '#80980B',
        900: '#5D6E0D',
        950: '#3A4508',
        DEFAULT: '#ecf9ae',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FBFDF2,
  '100': #F7FAE5,
  '200': #ecf9ae,
  '300': #E6F797,
  '400': #DAF362,
  '500': #CEF02E,
  '600': #BFE411,
  '700': #9FBE0E,
  '800': #80980B,
  '900': #5D6E0D,
  '950': #3A4508,
);
$brand-base: #ecf9ae;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FBFDF2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F7FAE5", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#ecf9ae", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#E6F797", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#DAF362", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#CEF02E", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#BFE411", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#9FBE0E", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#80980B", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#5D6E0D", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#3A4508", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #ecf9ae · 18.73:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.12:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 18.73:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #ecf9ae as text scores 1.12:1 on white and 18.73:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #647709 at 4.48:1.

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
#677B09 · 4.76:1
AA on white−57% L
#677B09
The quick fox
#4F5E07 · 7.15:1
AAA on white−63% L
#4F5E07
The quick fox
#ecf9ae · 18.73:1
AA on blackalready passes
#ecf9ae
The quick fox
#ecf9ae · 18.73:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#ecf9ae

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #839C0C 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
#ecf9ae on white: 1.12:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#ecf9ae on black: 18.73:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #ecf9ae as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #ecf9ae.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.12:1AaAa
Slate 501.07:1AaAa
Slate 1001.02:1AaAa
Slate 2001.10:1AaAa
Slate 3001.32:1AaAa
Slate 4002.29:1AaAa
Slate 5004.24:1AaAa
Slate 6006.76:1AaAa
Slate 7009.23:1AaAa
Slate 80013.05:1AaAa
Slate 90015.92:1AaAa
Black18.73:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #FFF1A9
deuteranopia · #FFF2B1
tritanopia · #F4F1E6

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. #ecf9ae is pinned to step 200; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FBFDF2
#F7FAE5
#ecf9ae
#E6F797
#DAF362
#CEF02E
#BFE411
#9FBE0E
#80980B
#5D6E0D
#3A4508
Base = 200Lightest = 50 · #FBFDF2Darkest = 950 · #3A4508Text 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 0.024 116.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.039 116.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.058 116.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.075 116.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.089 116.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.097 116.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.097 116.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.091 116.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.081 116.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.068 116.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.053 116.3);
}

Colors that work with #ecf9ae

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#E5EDC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#8D9B4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#0918C3
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#647709
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F9FDE7
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#222414
Dark-mode background
Hover#E4F78D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#DCF46B
Two steps down
Disabled#F6F7F3
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#F3FEBD
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 #ecf9ae

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
  • Card and section backgrounds
  • 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
  • White text placed on it
  • Status meaning — pair it with an icon or label, never colour alone
  • 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 #647709
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #839C0C

Meaning and mood

What a colour in this family tends to signal, and how this particular chroma and lightness change the reading.

safegrowingnaturalpermissive

Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed.

At this chroma the association is amplified — it will dominate anything placed beside it, so give it space and use it sparingly. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

Red/green pairs are the most common colour-blindness failure — never let the two carry meaning alone.

Reads as
  • FormalityLow
  • EnergyHigh
  • Weight17/100
  • 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#BBAEF9
Analogous left#F9E0AE
Analogous right#C6F9AE
Split-complement 1#AEC6F9
Split-complement 2#E0AEF9
Triadic 1#AEECF9
Triadic 2#F9AEEC
Tetradic#AEF9E0
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°70°

#ecf9ae sits at 70°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red92.5%
Green97.6%
Blue68.2%
R · 0–255
236
0xec
G · 0–255
249
0xf9
B · 0–255
174
0xae

CMYK percentages

Cyan5.2%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow30.1%
Key (black)2.4%

Total ink coverage is 38%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#ecf9ae text on a black background

contrast 18.73:1

Card sample

#ecf9ae text on a white background

contrast 1.12:1

Card sample

#ecf9ae on grey

1.02:1

#ecf9ae on its own surface

1.07:1

#ecf9ae on its dark surface

14.08:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #ecf9ae;
Background color
Panel with #ecf9ae background
background-color: #ecf9ae;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ecf9ae;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(236, 249, 174, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(236, 249, 174, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #ecf9ae;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #ecf9ae, #BAF9AE);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecf9ae, #AEF9B5);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #ecf9ae;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #ecf9ae;
caret-color: #ecf9ae;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #ecf9ae;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F9FDE7;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #ecf9ae;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#ecf9ae 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #ecf9ae 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(236, 249, 174, 0.5)
rgb(236 249 174 / 50%)
#ecf9ae80
hsl(70 86% 83% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #ecf9ae 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#ecf9ae1a#FDFEF7
20%#ecf9ae33#FBFEEF
40%#ecf9ae66#F7FDDF
60%#ecf9ae99#F4FBCE
80%#ecf9aecc#F0FABE

Gradients from #ecf9ae

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, #F9FDE7, #ecf9ae 45%, #647709);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #ecf9ae, #99F791);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ecf9ae, #BBAEF9);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #FCFEF1 0%, #ecf9ae 45%, #647709 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%, #FDF0DD 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #D6FBCA 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #647709 0%, transparent 65%), #ecf9ae;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #ecf9ae

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.

#ecf9ae in the real world

Where a color in this family tends to land, and the interface roles it is usually asked to play.

Industries
SustainabilityFinanceHealth and wellnessAgriculture
Common UI roles
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
Print note

Sits outside most CMYK gamuts — expect a duller press result, or specify a spot ink.

On screens

Very light values are indistinguishable from white on a dim phone screen outdoors. Give it a border if the boundary matters.

In dark mode

Usable as-is on a dark surface at 18.73:1.

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.

#ecf9ae, answered

What color is #ecf9ae?

#ecf9ae is a light electric green, closest to Pale Goldenrod (ΔE2000 6). It sits at 70° on the hue wheel with 86% saturation and 83% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #ecf9ae?

rgb(236, 249, 174) — 236 red, 249 green and 174 blue out of 255, or 92.5% / 97.6% / 68.2% by channel.

What is #ecf9ae in HSL and HSV?

hsl(70, 86%, 83%) and hsv(70, 30%, 98%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #ecf9ae a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.8864 and perceived brightness is 93%, so black text on it reaches 18.73:1.

Should I use black or white text on #ecf9ae?

Black. It scores 18.73:1 against #ecf9ae, versus 1.12:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #ecf9ae accessible on a white background?

#ecf9ae on white scores 1.12:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #677B09 to reach 4.5:1, or #4F5E07 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #ecf9ae?

#BBAEF9 sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #AEC6F9 and #E0AEF9, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #ecf9ae?

For interface work: #F9FAF4 as the surface, #E5EDC0 for borders, #8D9B4B for secondary text, #0918C3 as an accent and #647709 for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #F9E0AE and #C6F9AE stays calm, while #BBAEF9 is the loudest partner.

What is #ecf9ae in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(5%, 0%, 30%, 2%). 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 #ecf9ae warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 34 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #F9EAAE; nudged cooler, #D0FAAD.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #ecf9ae?

The lime family — its 500 step is #84cc16, ΔE2000 18.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #ecf9ae as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #ecf9ae in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#ecf9ae] or text-[#ecf9ae], 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 #ecf9ae with 50% opacity?

rgba(236, 249, 174, 0.5), or #ecf9ae80 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #F6FCD7; over black, #767D57.

Is #ecf9ae a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #FFFF99, ΔE2000 6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #ecf9ae mean?

As a green, it reads safe, growing, natural. Green means go, well, and grown. It carries finance, sustainability and health with almost no explanation needed. At this chroma the effect is amplified — it will dominate whatever sits beside it.

What gradient works with #ecf9ae?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #F9FDE7, #ecf9ae 45%, #647709). For more colour, a short hue run to #99F791 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #ecf9ae in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #ecf9ae at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.