Skip to content
yellow · warm

#bbb310

a dark, electric yellow · warm · closest name: Dark Khaki

Token name suggestion: Dusk Brass

RGB
187, 179, 16
HSL
57°, 84%, 40%
CMYK
0, 4, 91, 27
Luminance
0.4284

#bbb310 is a dark electric yellow, 57° on the wheel and 23/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (9.57:1). As text it scores 2.19:1 on white — use #7E790B instead. Nearest name is Dark Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is yellow.

hsl(57 84% 40%)rgb(187 179 16)Base step 700AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #bbb310 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#bbb310
Hue
57°
yellow
Saturation
84%
electric
Lightness
40%
dark
Brightness
73%
HSV value
Perceived
67%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.4284
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
23/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Electric
Best ink
Black
9.57:1
Closest name
Dark Khaki
ΔE2000 9.3
Chroma
72.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.750
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
yellow
500 · ΔE 12.6
Web-safe
#CCCC00
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue57° of 360°
Saturation84%
Lightness40%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #bbb310.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool23% 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
Red25%
Green75%
Blue0%

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

Every format

HEX#bbb310
HEX (8-digit)#bbb310ff
RGBrgb(187, 179, 16)
RGBArgba(187, 179, 16, 1)
HSLhsl(57, 84%, 40%)
HSV / HSBhsv(57, 91%, 73%)
HWBhwb(57 6% 27%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 4%, 91%, 27%)
LABlab(71.5 -12.8 71.3)
LCHlch(71.5 72.5 100.2)
OKLCHoklch(0.750 0.157 106.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(36.71, 42.84, 6.83)
Decimal12301072
Display P3color(display-p3 0.733 0.702 0.063)
Web-safe#CCCC00

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #bbb310;
background-color: #bbb310;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #bbb310;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#bbb310] bg-[#bbb310]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #bbb310;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.733, green: 0.702, blue: 0.063)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.733, green: 0.702, blue: 0.063, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#BBB310</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFBBB310)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFBBB310)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(16, 179, 187)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(187, 179, 16)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(187, 179, 16)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 187, 179, 16)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.7333f, 0.7020f, 0.0627f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{187,179,16}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #bbb310 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #bbb310 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#75700A, #EEEDD3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #bbb310 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: #FCFCF2;
  --brand-100: #FAF9E6;
  --brand-200: #F6F4C5;
  --brand-300: #F6F298;
  --brand-400: #F2EB64;
  --brand-500: #EDE430;
  --brand-600: #E1D813;
  --brand-700: #bbb310;
  --brand-800: #96900D;
  --brand-900: #6D680E;
  --brand-950: #444109;
  --brand: #bbb310;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAFAF4;
  --brand-border: #EDEBC0;
  --brand-hover: #9A930D;
  --brand-pressed: #79740A;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #242414;
    --brand-ink: #EEEDD3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FCFCF2',
        100: '#FAF9E6',
        200: '#F6F4C5',
        300: '#F6F298',
        400: '#F2EB64',
        500: '#EDE430',
        600: '#E1D813',
        700: '#bbb310',
        800: '#96900D',
        900: '#6D680E',
        950: '#444109',
        DEFAULT: '#bbb310',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FCFCF2,
  '100': #FAF9E6,
  '200': #F6F4C5,
  '300': #F6F298,
  '400': #F2EB64,
  '500': #EDE430,
  '600': #E1D813,
  '700': #bbb310,
  '800': #96900D,
  '900': #6D680E,
  '950': #444109,
);
$brand-base: #bbb310;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FCFCF2", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#FAF9E6", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#F6F4C5", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#F6F298", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#F2EB64", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#EDE430", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#E1D813", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#bbb310", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#96900D", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#6D680E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#444109", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #bbb310 · 9.57:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 2.19:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 9.57:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #bbb310 as text scores 2.19:1 on white and 9.57:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #75700A at 2.35:1.

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
#7E790B · 4.54:1
AA on white−13% L
#7E790B
The quick fox
#5D5908 · 7.25:1
AAA on white−20% L
#5D5908
The quick fox
#bbb310 · 9.57:1
AA on blackalready passes
#bbb310
The quick fox
#bbb310 · 9.57:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#bbb310

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #9F980E 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
#bbb310 on white: 2.19:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#bbb310 on black: 9.57:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #bbb310 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #bbb310.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White2.19:1AaAa
Slate 502.10:1AaAa
Slate 1002.00:1AaAa
Slate 2001.78:1AaAa
Slate 3001.48:1AaAa
Slate 4001.17:1AaAa
Slate 5002.17:1AaAa
Slate 6003.45:1AaAa
Slate 7004.72:1AaAa
Slate 8006.67:1AaAa
Slate 9008.13:1AaAa
Black9.57:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #C4AC00
deuteranopia · #C7B225
tritanopia · #CAA698

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. #bbb310 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.

#FCFCF2
#FAF9E6
#F6F4C5
#F6F298
#F2EB64
#EDE430
#E1D813
#bbb310
#96900D
#6D680E
#444109
Base = 700Lightest = 50 · #FCFCF2Darkest = 950 · #444109Text 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 0.039 106.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.063 106.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.094 106.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.123 106.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.145 106.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.157 106.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.157 106.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.148 106.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.132 106.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.110 106.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.087 106.3);
}

Colors that work with #bbb310

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#EDEBC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B974B
Captions on the surface
Accent#0C41BF
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#75700A
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#FDFCE8
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#242414
Dark-mode background
Hover#9A930D
One step down in lightness
Pressed#79740A
Two steps down
Disabled#B3B188
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#D9CF06
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 #bbb310

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 #75700A
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #9F980E

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#1018BB
Analogous left#BB5E10
Analogous right#6DBB10
Split-complement 1#106DBB
Split-complement 2#5E10BB
Triadic 1#10BBB3
Triadic 2#B310BB
Tetradic#10BB5E
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°57°

#bbb310 sits at 57°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red73.3%
Green70.2%
Blue6.3%
R · 0–255
187
0xbb
G · 0–255
179
0xb3
B · 0–255
16
0x10

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta4.3%
Yellow91.4%
Key (black)26.7%

Total ink coverage is 122%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#bbb310 text on a black background

contrast 9.57:1

Card sample

#bbb310 text on a white background

contrast 2.19:1

Card sample

#bbb310 on grey

2.00:1

#bbb310 on its own surface

2.09:1

#bbb310 on its dark surface

7.15:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #bbb310;
Background color
Panel with #bbb310 background
background-color: #bbb310;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #bbb310;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(187, 179, 16, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(187, 179, 16, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #bbb310;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #bbb310, #51BB10);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbb310, #26BB10);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #bbb310;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #bbb310;
caret-color: #bbb310;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #bbb310;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #FDFCE8;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #bbb310;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#bbb310 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #bbb310 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(187, 179, 16, 0.5)
rgb(187 179 16 / 50%)
#bbb31080
hsl(57 84% 40% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #bbb310 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#bbb3101a#F8F7E7
20%#bbb31033#F1F0CF
40%#bbb31066#E4E19F
60%#bbb31099#D6D170
80%#bbb310cc#C9C240

Gradients from #bbb310

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, #ECE21D, #bbb310 45%, #75700A);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #bbb310, #399F0E);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #bbb310, #1018BB);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #EEE639 0%, #bbb310 45%, #75700A 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%, #EA6314 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #6ED712 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #75700A 0%, transparent 65%), #bbb310;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #bbb310

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.

#bbb310 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 9.57:1.

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.

#bbb310, answered

What color is #bbb310?

#bbb310 is a dark electric yellow, closest to Dark Khaki (ΔE2000 9.3). It sits at 57° on the hue wheel with 84% saturation and 40% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #bbb310?

rgb(187, 179, 16) — 187 red, 179 green and 16 blue out of 255, or 73.3% / 70.2% / 6.3% by channel.

What is #bbb310 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(57, 84%, 40%) and hsv(57, 91%, 73%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #bbb310 a light or a dark color?

It is a mid-tone. Relative luminance is 0.4284 and perceived brightness is 67%, so black text on it reaches 9.57:1.

Should I use black or white text on #bbb310?

Black. It scores 9.57:1 against #bbb310, versus 2.19:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #bbb310 accessible on a white background?

#bbb310 on white scores 2.19:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #7E790B to reach 4.5:1, or #5D5908 for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #bbb310?

#1018BB sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #106DBB and #5E10BB, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #bbb310?

For interface work: #FAFAF4 as the surface, #EDEBC0 for borders, #9B974B for secondary text, #0C41BF as an accent and #75700A for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #BB5E10 and #6DBB10 stays calm, while #1018BB is the loudest partner.

What is #bbb310 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 4%, 91%, 27%). 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 #bbb310 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 23 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #BB7F10; nudged cooler, #85BD0E.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #bbb310?

The yellow family — its 500 step is #eab308, ΔE2000 12.6 away. That is a visible difference, so define #bbb310 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #bbb310 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#bbb310] or text-[#bbb310], 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 #bbb310 with 50% opacity?

rgba(187, 179, 16, 0.5), or #bbb31080 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #DDD988; over black, #5E5A08.

Is #bbb310 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCC00, ΔE2000 6.6 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #bbb310 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 #bbb310?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #ECE21D, #bbb310 45%, #75700A). For more colour, a short hue run to #399F0E keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #bbb310 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #bbb310 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.