We're live on Product Hunt!Support us
ColorArchive

A curated color library with 5,000+ algorithmically generated colors. Browse, search, save favorites, and export palette tokens — no account required.

CollectionsFamiliesBrandsRegionsJournalNotesGuidesFree ResourcesConvertColorblindAboutSupportUpdates
Ready for static export
Privacy·Terms·Refunds·Cookies·Commerce Disclosure
colorarchive.org · © 2026 ColorArchive
Skip to content
ColorArchive
ProLog in
ArchiveAll ColorsCollections
Citrine Velvet Vivid
Color detail

Citrine Velvet Vivid

Yellow · Hue 60
Hex
#BABA1C
RGB
rgb(186, 186, 28)
HSL
hsl(60, 74%, 42%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 0%, 85%, 27%)
Metrics
S 74% · L 42%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white
2.1:1Fail
on black
10.1:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Citrine Velvet Vivid (#BABA1C) belongs to the yellow family — hue 60°, 74% saturation, 42% lightness. Copy the hex, RGB, or HSL value above, or paste the CSS custom property below into your stylesheet to reference this color directly.

CSS
:root {
  --colorarchive-citrine-velvet-vivid: #BABA1C;
  --colorarchive-citrine-velvet-vivid-hsl: hsl(60, 74%, 42%);
  --colorarchive-citrine-velvet-vivid-rgb: rgb(186, 186, 28);
}

AI Color Names

Let AI suggest alternative poetic names for this color in English and Chinese.

Design Context

OptimisticAttention-GrabbingEnergizing
Common in

Delivery Services · Construction · Education

Pairs well with

Black for maximum visibility, deep purple for creative tension, navy for trust

Design tip

Use for highlight elements, badges, and warning states. Yellow draws the eye instantly — perfect for notifications and wayfinding.

Cultural context ▶

Yellow is the most visible color in daylight. It signals caution (traffic signs) and joy (smiley faces) across cultures.

Color Origins

Yellow family

The color of attention, sunlight, and contradiction.

Heritage

Yellow ochre is, with red ochre, one of the two pigments humans have used continuously for the longest time. Indian Yellow — historically made from the urine of cows fed only mango leaves — reached its peak in 17th–18th century Mughal painting before falling out of use. Cadmium yellow, introduced in the 1840s, gave Van Gogh his sunflowers; chrome yellow gave him the wheat fields he died in. Modern PY83 (a hansa yellow) is the durable workhorse of contemporary printing.

Across cultures

In Imperial China yellow was the emperor's color, off-limits to commoners. In medieval Europe yellow was simultaneously sacred (gold halos) and stigmatized (forced-yellow garments imposed on Jews and 'heretics' — the precedent the Nazis revived). In Japan yellow is courage; in Egypt it was the color of mourning. Few colors carry such contradictory meanings across regions.

In the wild

McDonald's golden arches were calibrated for highway visibility — the M is yellow because yellow is the most-recognized color at distance. The Yellow Pages, the New York taxi, the school bus, and the Post-it note are all the same engineered yellow (PMS 116) for the same reason: maximum legibility at minimum cost. Coldplay's 'Yellow' put the color into the cultural mood vocabulary in 2000. IKEA pairs yellow with blue in a deliberate echo of the Swedish flag.

How it reads

Yellow demands attention more aggressively than any other color — the eye's L-cones and M-cones both peak nearby, so yellow appears bright at lower luminance than other hues. It works as an accent, a warning, or a child-friendly primary; it almost never works as a body-text color (contrast against white is too low). At low saturation yellow becomes cream, butter, parchment — quiet and warm; at high saturation it becomes a hazard sign or a sport drink.

This particular tone

A vivid mid-tone — distinctive enough to anchor an identity, saturated enough to demand a quiet supporting palette.

Lightness band: At mid-lightness the hue carries its full character. This is the band where most identity colors live: bright enough to be distinctive at small sizes, deep enough to sit cleanly on a white canvas.

Saturation band: At this saturation the color is doing work. It reads as a brand statement, a sport accessory, or a UI signal. It should be used in small, deliberate doses against quieter neighbors; large fields at this saturation will exhaust the eye.

Brands using a similar color

Within the public brand-guidelines reference catalog, these are the closest matches to #BABA1C.

  • Slackaccent
    Slack Yellow · #ECB22E
    →
  • Microsoftprimary
    Xbox Green · #7FBA00
    →
  • Googleprimary
    Google Yellow · #FBBC04
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #BABA1C.

  • Turkey (Istanbul)Byzantine Gold
    #D4AF37 · Hagia Sophia mosaic ground
    →
  • VietnamHội An Yellow
    #E8B647 · Painted colonial-era walls
    →
  • Italy (Tuscany)Sunflower Yellow
    #F3C220 · Helianthus fields, Val d'Orcia
    →

Tonal strip

All lightness levels at this hue and saturation. Click any to navigate.

Palette moves

Instead of stopping at one swatch, use nearby, opposite, and tonal neighbors to branch into a broader palette.

Lighter companion
Citrine Core Vivid
#D5D520 · hsl(60, 74%, 48%)
Darker companion
Citrine Dusk Vivid
#979717 · hsl(60, 74%, 34%)
Complementary counterpoint
Iris Velvet Vivid
#1C1CBA · hsl(240, 74%, 42%)
Analogous lead
Olive Velvet Vivid
#86BA1C · hsl(80, 74%, 42%)
Analogous echo
Apricot Velvet Vivid
#BA861C · hsl(40, 74%, 42%)
Triadic +120°
Aqua Velvet Vivid
#1CBABA · hsl(180, 74%, 42%)
Triadic +240°
Fuchsia Velvet Vivid
#BA1CBA · hsl(300, 74%, 42%)
Split-comp +150°
Sapphire Velvet Vivid
#1C6BBA · hsl(210, 74%, 42%)
Split-comp +210°
Plum Velvet Vivid
#6B1CBA · hsl(270, 74%, 42%)
Export preview
Base: Citrine Velvet Vivid #BABA1C
Lighter companion: Citrine Core Vivid #D5D520
Darker companion: Citrine Dusk Vivid #979717
Complementary counterpoint: Iris Velvet Vivid #1C1CBA
Analogous lead: Olive Velvet Vivid #86BA1C
Analogous echo: Apricot Velvet Vivid #BA861C
Triadic +120°: Aqua Velvet Vivid #1CBABA
Triadic +240°: Fuchsia Velvet Vivid #BA1CBA
Split-comp +150°: Sapphire Velvet Vivid #1C6BBA
Split-comp +210°: Plum Velvet Vivid #6B1CBA

Compare

See how Citrine Velvet Vivid compares side by side with related colors.

vsCitrine Core VividvsCitrine Dusk VividvsIris Velvet VividvsOlive Velvet VividvsApricot Velvet VividvsAqua Velvet Vivid

Nearest neighbors

The closest archive matches by hue, saturation, and lightness.

Search by hex
Nearby match
Citrine Core Vivid
#D5D520 · hsl(60, 74%, 48%)
Nearby match
Citrine Velvet Bright
#C5C511 · hsl(60, 84%, 42%)
Nearby match
Canary Velvet Vivid
#BAAD1C · hsl(55, 74%, 42%)
Nearby match
Citrine Dusk Vivid
#979717 · hsl(60, 74%, 34%)
Nearby match
Citrine Velvet Pure
#CECE09 · hsl(60, 92%, 42%)
Nearby match
Citrine Radiant Vivid
#E1E133 · hsl(60, 74%, 54%)

Accessible pairings

Archive colors that meet WCAG contrast standards when paired with this color. Use as text-on-background or background-on-text.

Contrast checker
AAA7.2:1
Iris Shadow Vivid
#13137C
AAA7.3:1
Iris Shadow Bright
#0B0B83
AAA7.3:1
Iris Shadow Pure
#060689
AAA7.1:1
Iris Nocturne Dust
#262640
AAA7.3:1
Iris Nocturne Soft
#222244
AAA8:1
Iris Nocturne Clear
#17174F

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#BABA6E
Protanopia
#BABA64
Tritanopia
#BA8186
Ready to build

Turn these colors into design tokens

ColorArchive Pro includes CSS variables, Figma tokens, Tailwind config, and Procreate swatches — ready to drop into any project.

Upgrade to ProFree downloadView collections

Related colors

More from Yellow

Search
Saffron Ink Faint#272520 · hsl(45, 10%, 14%)Saffron Nocturne Faint#38362E · hsl(45, 10%, 20%)Saffron Shadow Faint#4F4B40 · hsl(45, 10%, 28%)Saffron Dusk Faint#5F5B4E · hsl(45, 10%, 34%)Saffron Velvet Faint#767060 · hsl(45, 10%, 42%)Saffron Core Faint#87816E · hsl(45, 10%, 48%)Saffron Radiant Faint#95907E · hsl(45, 10%, 54%)Saffron Tone Faint#A39E8F · hsl(45, 10%, 60%)