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yellow · warm

#dfdf90

a light, vivid yellow · warm · closest name: Khaki

Token name suggestion: Morning Brass

RGB
223, 223, 144
HSL
60°, 55%, 72%
CMYK
0, 0, 35, 13
Luminance
0.7048

#dfdf90 is a light vivid yellow, 60° on the wheel and 25/100 on the cool side. Put black text on it (15.10:1). As text it scores 1.39:1 on white — use #777722 instead. Nearest name is Khaki, nearest Tailwind family is lime.

hsl(60 55% 72%)rgb(223 223 144)Base step 400AAA inkWarm

At a glance

Every number on this page in one read: what #dfdf90 is made of, how bright it looks, and which way it leans.

Hex
#dfdf90
Hue
60°
yellow
Saturation
55%
vivid
Lightness
72%
light
Brightness
87%
HSV value
Perceived
84%
weighted brightness
Luminance
0.7048
WCAG relative
Temperature
Warm
25/100 cool
Color family
Yellow
Tone
Vivid
Best ink
Black
15.10:1
Closest name
Khaki
ΔE2000 3.8
Chroma
40.5
LCH, 0–130ish
OKLCH L
0.886
perceptual lightness
Tailwind
lime
500 · ΔE 16.9
Web-safe
#CCCC99
nearest of 216
Where it sits
Hue60° of 360°
Saturation55%
Lightness72%
Saturation × lightness field

Left edge is grey, right edge is full chroma; top is white, bottom is black. The dot is #dfdf90.

Temperature
Warm ← → Cool25% 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
Red22%
Green75%
Blue3%

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

Every format

HEX#dfdf90
HEX (8-digit)#dfdf90ff
RGBrgb(223, 223, 144)
RGBArgba(223, 223, 144, 1)
HSLhsl(60, 55%, 72%)
HSV / HSBhsv(60, 35%, 87%)
HWBhwb(60 56% 13%)
CMYKcmyk(0%, 0%, 35%, 13%)
LABlab(87.2 -11.7 38.8)
LCHlch(87.2 40.5 106.8)
OKLCHoklch(0.886 0.100 108.3)
XYZ (D65)xyz(61.85, 70.48, 36.73)
Decimal14671760
Display P3color(display-p3 0.875 0.875 0.565)
Web-safe#CCCC99

Copy-ready code

every platformclick to select
/* CSS */
color: #dfdf90;
background-color: #dfdf90;
/* CSS custom property */
--brand: #dfdf90;
/* Tailwind (arbitrary) */
class="text-[#dfdf90] bg-[#dfdf90]"
/* SCSS */
$brand: #dfdf90;
/* SwiftUI */
Color(red: 0.875, green: 0.875, blue: 0.565)
/* UIKit */
UIColor(red: 0.875, green: 0.875, blue: 0.565, alpha: 1)
/* Android XML */
<color name="brand">#DFDF90</color>
/* Android Compose */
Color(0xFFDFDF90)
/* Flutter */
Color(0xFFDFDF90)
/* Python / OpenCV (BGR) */
(144, 223, 223)
/* Python / PIL (RGB) */
(223, 223, 144)
/* Java AWT */
new Color(223, 223, 144)
/* .NET */
Color.FromArgb(255, 223, 223, 144)
/* OpenGL / Unity (0–1) */
(0.8745f, 0.8745f, 0.5647f, 1f)
/* LaTeX */
\definecolor{brand}{RGB}{223,223,144}
modern cssclick to select
/* mix without leaving CSS */
background: color-mix(in oklab, #dfdf90 85%, white);
border-color: color-mix(in oklab, #dfdf90 40%, transparent);
/* theme-aware in one line */
color: light-dark(#63631D, #EEEED3);
/* relative colour syntax */
--hover: hsl(from #dfdf90 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: #FBFBF4;
  --brand-100: #F6F6E9;
  --brand-200: #EEEECE;
  --brand-300: #E6E6A8;
  --brand-400: #dfdf90;
  --brand-500: #CDCD51;
  --brand-600: #BEBE37;
  --brand-700: #9E9E2E;
  --brand-800: #7F7F25;
  --brand-900: #5C5C1E;
  --brand-950: #3A3A13;
  --brand: #dfdf90;
  --brand-ink: #000000;
  --brand-surface: #FAFAF4;
  --brand-border: #EDEDC0;
  --brand-hover: #D7D774;
  --brand-pressed: #CFCF59;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    --brand-surface: #242414;
    --brand-ink: #EEEED3;
  }
}
tailwind.config.jsclick to select
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      brand: {
        50: '#FBFBF4',
        100: '#F6F6E9',
        200: '#EEEECE',
        300: '#E6E6A8',
        400: '#dfdf90',
        500: '#CDCD51',
        600: '#BEBE37',
        700: '#9E9E2E',
        800: '#7F7F25',
        900: '#5C5C1E',
        950: '#3A3A13',
        DEFAULT: '#dfdf90',
      },
    },
  },
}
scss mapclick to select
$brand: (
  '50': #FBFBF4,
  '100': #F6F6E9,
  '200': #EEEECE,
  '300': #E6E6A8,
  '400': #dfdf90,
  '500': #CDCD51,
  '600': #BEBE37,
  '700': #9E9E2E,
  '800': #7F7F25,
  '900': #5C5C1E,
  '950': #3A3A13,
);
$brand-base: #dfdf90;
$brand-ink: #000000;

@function brand($step) { @return map-get($brand, $step); }
w3c design tokens (json)click to select
{
  "color": {
    "brand": {
      "50": { "$value": "#FBFBF4", "$type": "color" },
      "100": { "$value": "#F6F6E9", "$type": "color" },
      "200": { "$value": "#EEEECE", "$type": "color" },
      "300": { "$value": "#E6E6A8", "$type": "color" },
      "400": { "$value": "#dfdf90", "$type": "color" },
      "500": { "$value": "#CDCD51", "$type": "color" },
      "600": { "$value": "#BEBE37", "$type": "color" },
      "700": { "$value": "#9E9E2E", "$type": "color" },
      "800": { "$value": "#7F7F25", "$type": "color" },
      "900": { "$value": "#5C5C1E", "$type": "color" },
      "950": { "$value": "#3A3A13", "$type": "color" }
    },
    "brandInk": { "$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 #dfdf90 · 15.10:1
Use #000000AAA at every size.
Aa
12px
Aa
16px
Aa
24px
Aa
White text · 1.39:1
AA fail · AA large fail · AAA fail
Aa
Black text · 15.10:1 · recommended
AA pass · AA large pass · AAA pass
Reading the other direction: #dfdf90 as text scores 1.39:1 on white and 15.10:1 on black.
Best tinted ink on it, if plain black or white feels flat: #63631D at 4.53:1.

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
#777722 · 4.72:1
AA on white−42% L
#777722
The quick fox
#5B5B1A · 7.10:1
AAA on white−49% L
#5B5B1A
The quick fox
#dfdf90 · 15.10:1
AA on blackalready passes
#dfdf90
The quick fox
#dfdf90 · 15.10:1
AAA on blackalready passes
#dfdf90

Large text — 24px regular or 18.66px bold and above — only needs 3:1, so #96962B 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
#dfdf90 on white: 1.39:1
AA ✗ fail · AA-large · AAA
Aa
#dfdf90 on black: 15.10:1
AA ✓ pass · AA-large · AAA
Against the neutral ladder

Contrast is symmetric, so each row covers both directions: #dfdf90 as text on that neutral, and that neutral as text on #dfdf90.

NeutralRatioBoth directions
White1.39:1AaAa
Slate 501.33:1AaAa
Slate 1001.27:1AaAa
Slate 2001.13:1AaAa
Slate 3001.07:1AaAa
Slate 4001.84:1AaAa
Slate 5003.42:1AaAa
Slate 6005.45:1AaAa
Slate 7007.44:1AaAa
Slate 80010.52:1AaAa
Slate 90012.83:1AaAa
Black15.10:1AaAa
Colour vision deficiency
true color
protanopia · #EBD98A
deuteranopia · #ECDC93
tritanopia · #EAD6CB

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. #dfdf90 is pinned to step 400; the rest hold its hue and let saturation ease off at the extremes so the pale end never turns neon.

#FBFBF4
#F6F6E9
#EEEECE
#E6E6A8
#dfdf90
#CDCD51
#BEBE37
#9E9E2E
#7F7F25
#5C5C1E
#3A3A13
Base = 400Lightest = 50 · #FBFBF4Darkest = 950 · #3A3A13Text 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 0.025 108.3);
  --brand-100: oklch(0.94 0.040 108.3);
  --brand-200: oklch(0.88 0.060 108.3);
  --brand-300: oklch(0.80 0.078 108.3);
  --brand-400: oklch(0.72 0.092 108.3);
  --brand-500: oklch(0.64 0.100 108.3);
  --brand-600: oklch(0.56 0.100 108.3);
  --brand-700: oklch(0.48 0.094 108.3);
  --brand-800: oklch(0.40 0.084 108.3);
  --brand-900: oklch(0.32 0.070 108.3);
  --brand-950: oklch(0.24 0.055 108.3);
}

Colors that work with #dfdf90

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#EDEDC0
Hairlines and dividers
Muted text#9B9B4B
Captions on the surface
Accent#2947A3
Second voice, not a rival
Dark variant#63631D
Hover, pressed, headers
Light variant#F9F9EB
Selected rows, tints
Dark surface#242414
Dark-mode background
Hover#D7D774
One step down in lightness
Pressed#CFCF59
Two steps down
Disabled#F3F3EC
Chroma pulled out
Focus ring#EAEA9A
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 #dfdf90

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
  • 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 #63631D
Safe as a 1px border on white
No — use #96962B

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.

This is a confident chroma: strong enough to lead a brand, restrained enough to live in an interface all day. The lightness keeps it airy and approachable.

Worth knowing

Almost never passes contrast against white. Treat it as a surface or a marker, not as text.

Reads as
  • FormalityMedium
  • EnergyMedium-high
  • Weight28/100
  • 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#9090DF
Analogous left#DFB890
Analogous right#B8DF90
Split-complement 1#90B8DF
Split-complement 2#B890DF
Triadic 1#90DFDF
Triadic 2#DF90DF
Tetradic#90DFB8
On the wheel
Base+30°−30°+120°+240°+180°60°

#dfdf90 sits at 60°. Every dot is a harmony position and links to its own page in the table alongside.

RGB percentages

Red87.5%
Green87.5%
Blue56.5%
R · 0–255
223
0xdf
G · 0–255
223
0xdf
B · 0–255
144
0x90

CMYK percentages

Cyan0.0%
Magenta0.0%
Yellow35.4%
Key (black)12.5%

Total ink coverage is 48%. Most commercial presses cap around 300% — above that, sheets stop drying properly.

Color previews

#dfdf90 text on a black background

contrast 15.10:1

Card sample

#dfdf90 text on a white background

contrast 1.39:1

Card sample

#dfdf90 on grey

1.27:1

#dfdf90 on its own surface

1.33:1

#dfdf90 on its dark surface

11.29:1

CSS3 live lab

Text font color

The quick brown fox

color: #dfdf90;
Background color
Panel with #dfdf90 background
background-color: #dfdf90;
Text shadow — hex

Glowing headline

text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #dfdf90;
Text shadow — RGB

Soft neon halo

text-shadow: 0 0 14px rgba(223, 223, 144, 0.45);
Div box shadow
Elevated card
box-shadow: 0 12px 32px -8px rgba(223, 223, 144, 0.45);
Border & gradient
Gradient panel
border: 3px solid #dfdf90;
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #dfdf90, #AADF90);
Gradient text

Gradient headline

background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dfdf90, #97DF90);
-webkit-background-clip: text;
color: transparent;
Focus ring
Focused control
outline: 2px solid #dfdf90;
outline-offset: 3px;
Underline & caret

Marked up text

text-decoration-color: #dfdf90;
caret-color: #dfdf90;
Left rule
Pull quote or callout
border-left: 4px solid #dfdf90;
Ring + tint
Selected chip
background: #F9F9EB;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 2px #dfdf90;
Conic badge
68%
background: conic-gradient(#dfdf90 68%, #e2e8f0 0);

Transparency

What each alpha value actually composites to. The top row is #dfdf90 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(223, 223, 144, 0.5)
rgb(223 223 144 / 50%)
#dfdf9080
hsl(60 55% 72% / 50%)
color-mix(in srgb, #dfdf90 50%, transparent)
Alpha8-digit hexFlat on white
10%#dfdf901a#FCFCF4
20%#dfdf9033#F9F9E9
40%#dfdf9066#F2F2D3
60%#dfdf9099#ECECBC
80%#dfdf90cc#E5E5A6

Gradients from #dfdf90

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, #EDEDC0, #dfdf90 45%, #63631D);
Duotone
A short hue run reads richer than a flat fill
background: linear-gradient(120deg, #dfdf90, #90D878);
Complement sweep
Loud — keep it behind large type only
background: linear-gradient(90deg, #dfdf90, #9090DF);
Spotlight
Hero panels and app headers
background: radial-gradient(120% 120% at 20% 0%, #F4F4D7 0%, #dfdf90 45%, #63631D 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%, #EACDB8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(55% 55% at 85% 15%, #C2E6A8 0%, transparent 60%), radial-gradient(70% 70% at 50% 95%, #63631D 0%, transparent 65%), #dfdf90;

Monochromatic scale

Palettes built from #dfdf90

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.

#dfdf90 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
SurfacesBadgesHighlightsEmpty states
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 15.10:1.

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.

#dfdf90, answered

What color is #dfdf90?

#dfdf90 is a light vivid yellow, closest to Khaki (ΔE2000 3.8). It sits at 60° on the hue wheel with 55% saturation and 72% lightness, which reads as warm.

What is the RGB value of #dfdf90?

rgb(223, 223, 144) — 223 red, 223 green and 144 blue out of 255, or 87.5% / 87.5% / 56.5% by channel.

What is #dfdf90 in HSL and HSV?

hsl(60, 55%, 72%) and hsv(60, 35%, 87%). HSL is what CSS takes; HSV is what your design tool's picker shows, which is why the saturation numbers rarely match.

Is #dfdf90 a light or a dark color?

It is a light color. Relative luminance is 0.7048 and perceived brightness is 84%, so black text on it reaches 15.10:1.

Should I use black or white text on #dfdf90?

Black. It scores 15.10:1 against #dfdf90, versus 1.39:1 for white — AAA at any size.

Is #dfdf90 accessible on a white background?

#dfdf90 on white scores 1.39:1, which fails WCAG AA at every size. Darken it to #777722 to reach 4.5:1, or #5B5B1A for 7:1.

What is the complementary color of #dfdf90?

#9090DF sits directly opposite on the wheel. Softer options are the split-complements #90B8DF and #B890DF, which give the same contrast with far less vibration.

What colors go well with #dfdf90?

For interface work: #FAFAF4 as the surface, #EDEDC0 for borders, #9B9B4B for secondary text, #2947A3 as an accent and #63631D for hover and pressed states. For a palette, the analogous pair #DFB890 and #B8DF90 stays calm, while #9090DF is the loudest partner.

What is #dfdf90 in CMYK for printing?

cmyk(0%, 0%, 35%, 13%). This is a screen-to-ink approximation — ask your printer for a proof before committing to a run.

Is #dfdf90 warm or cool?

Warm — it scores 25 on a scale where 0 is the warmest orange and 100 the coolest azure. Nudged warmer it becomes #DFC290; nudged cooler, #C2E08F.

Which Tailwind color is closest to #dfdf90?

The lime family — its 500 step is #84cc16, ΔE2000 16.9 away. That is a visible difference, so define #dfdf90 as a custom token rather than reaching for the built-in.

How do I use #dfdf90 in Tailwind CSS?

Inline it as an arbitrary value with bg-[#dfdf90] or text-[#dfdf90], 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 #dfdf90 with 50% opacity?

rgba(223, 223, 144, 0.5), or #dfdf9080 in eight-digit hex. Over white that composites to #EFEFC8; over black, #707048.

Is #dfdf90 a web-safe color?

No. The nearest web-safe colour is #CCCC99, ΔE2000 6.9 away. The palette only matters for legacy displays and some email clients now.

What does the color #dfdf90 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 #dfdf90?

The safest is same-hue elevation: linear-gradient(135deg, #EDEDC0, #dfdf90 45%, #63631D). For more colour, a short hue run to #90D878 keeps it rich without turning muddy.

Work with #dfdf90 in the Color Lab

Every tool opens with this colour already loaded.

Every value on this page is computed from #dfdf90 at request time — conversions, contrast ratios and ΔE distances are calculated, never looked up.