We're live on Product Hunt!Support us
ColorArchive

A curated color library with 5,446 algorithmically generated colors. Browse, search, save favorites, and export palette tokens — no account required.

CollectionsFamiliesBrandsRegionsJournalNotesGuidesFree ResourcesEmbed widgetConvertColorblindAboutSupportUpdatesiOS app
Ready for static export
Privacy·Terms·Refunds·Cookies·Commerce Disclosure
colorarchive.org · © 2026 ColorArchive
Skip to content
ColorArchive
ProLog in
ArchiveAll ColorsCollections
Amber Dusk Vivid
Color detail

Amber Dusk Vivid

Yellow · Hue 50
Metrics
S 74% · L 34%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white3.8:1AA Largeon black5.5:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Amber Dusk Vivid (#978117) belongs to the yellow family — hue 50°, 74% saturation, 34% 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-amber-dusk-vivid: #978117;
  --colorarchive-amber-dusk-vivid-hsl: hsl(50, 74%, 34%);
  --colorarchive-amber-dusk-vivid-rgb: rgb(151, 129, 23);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

WarmMatureLuxurious
Common in

Jewelry · Gourmet Food · Architecture

Pairs well with

Charcoal, deep emerald, or rich brown for elegant compositions

Design tip

Dark yellows and golds work beautifully in premium interfaces. Use for headings, icons, and accent borders on dark backgrounds.

Cultural context ▶

Gold and amber tones represent wealth, wisdom, and prestige. Central to Buddhist and Egyptian visual traditions.

Color Origins

Yellow family

The color of attention, sunlight, and contradiction.

Heritage

Yellow ochre is, with red ochre, among the oldest pigments humans have used. Indian Yellow — historically made from the urine of cows fed only mango leaves — is best known from Rajput and Mughal miniatures of the 16th to 19th centuries, before falling out of use. Chrome yellow, an early-19th-century pigment, gave Van Gogh his sunflowers (and is slowly darkening in them); cadmium yellow followed in the 1840s. Synthetic diarylide yellows are now the workhorses of process-color 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). Few colors carry such contradictory meanings across regions.

In the wild

McDonald's golden arches were designed to be noticed from the road, a simple shape readable over long distances. The American school bus was standardized on yellow in 1939 because it was judged easiest to see; the Post-it note got its canary yellow by accident, from scrap paper in a neighboring lab. 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 is the lightest saturated hue — the eye is most sensitive near the yellow-green of the spectrum, where its L- and M-cones overlap, so a full yellow carries more luminance than any other saturated hue. 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 jewel tone — saturated and dark at once. This is the register of velvet, deep enamel, and old-world luxury.

Lightness band: At this depth the hue starts behaving like a neutral — it can substitute for black in many contexts while still carrying a faint chromatic temperature. It pairs especially well with off-whites and warm metallics.

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 #978117.

  • GitHubaccent
    Attention Yellow · #9A6700
    →
  • Notionaccent
    Default Brown · #9F6B53
    →
  • Anthropicaccent
    Anthropic Green · #788C5D
    →

Cultures using a similar color

From the cultural-palette catalog, these regions feature a color close to #978117.

  • AustraliaBush Khaki
    #8E895C · Outback grassland in dry season
    →
  • IrelandPasture Green
    #7C9A4C · Limestone-base pastureland, the West
    →
  • Turkey (Istanbul)Apple Tea Amber
    #C77D4D · Çay glass tea, ubiquitous Istanbul tradition
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using yellow and color in design.

Color TheoryWarm Color Palette Guide: Reds, Oranges, Yellows, and Their NeutralsColor History1950s Pastel Color Palettes: Mid-Century Mint, Coral Pink & Butter YellowBrand & MarketingPackaging Color Strategy: How Shelf Impact Works and How to Engineer It

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
Amber Velvet Vivid
#BAA01C · hsl(50, 74%, 42%)
Darker companion
Amber Shadow Vivid
#7C6B13 · hsl(50, 74%, 28%)
Complementary counterpoint
Indigo Dusk Vivid
#172C97 · hsl(230, 74%, 34%)
Analogous lead
Chartreuse Dusk Vivid
#779717 · hsl(75, 74%, 34%)
Analogous echo
Tangerine Dusk Vivid
#974C17 · hsl(25, 74%, 34%)
Triadic +120°
Lagoon Dusk Vivid
#179781 · hsl(170, 74%, 34%)
Triadic +240°
Magenta Dusk Vivid
#811797 · hsl(290, 74%, 34%)
Split-comp +150°
Azure Dusk Vivid
#176C97 · hsl(200, 74%, 34%)
Split-comp +210°
Orchid Dusk Vivid
#411797 · hsl(260, 74%, 34%)
Export preview
Base: Amber Dusk Vivid #978117
Lighter companion: Amber Velvet Vivid #BAA01C
Darker companion: Amber Shadow Vivid #7C6B13
Complementary counterpoint: Indigo Dusk Vivid #172C97
Analogous lead: Chartreuse Dusk Vivid #779717
Analogous echo: Tangerine Dusk Vivid #974C17
Triadic +120°: Lagoon Dusk Vivid #179781
Triadic +240°: Magenta Dusk Vivid #811797
Split-comp +150°: Azure Dusk Vivid #176C97
Split-comp +210°: Orchid Dusk Vivid #411797

Compare

See how Amber Dusk Vivid compares side by side with related colors.

vsAmber Velvet VividvsAmber Shadow VividvsIndigo Dusk VividvsChartreuse Dusk VividvsTangerine Dusk VividvsLagoon Dusk Vivid

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Amber Shadow Vivid
#7C6B13 · hsl(50, 74%, 28%)
Nearby match
Amber Dusk Bright
#A0870E · hsl(50, 84%, 34%)
Nearby match
Saffron Dusk Vivid
#977717 · hsl(45, 74%, 34%)
Nearby match
Canary Dusk Vivid
#978C17 · hsl(55, 74%, 34%)
Nearby match
Amber Velvet Vivid
#BAA01C · hsl(50, 74%, 42%)
Nearby match
Amber Dusk Pure
#A68C07 · hsl(50, 92%, 34%)

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
AA4.6:1
Indigo Ink Clear
#101737
AA4.7:1
Indigo Ink Vivid
#09123E
AA4.7:1
Indigo Ink Bright
#061042
AA4.7:1
Indigo Ink Pure
#030E45
AA4.5:1
Iris Nocturne Vivid
#0D0D59
AA4.5:1
Iris Nocturne Bright
#08085E

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#8F914C
Protanopia
#8E8E45
Tritanopia
#96595D
Color of the Day

Like Amber Dusk Vivid? Get one like it every morning.

One hand-picked color a day — with its hex, family, and the story behind it.

Get a color every morning

One email per day. Unsubscribe anytime.

Ready to build

Turn these colors into design tokens

Copy the CSS variables and the Tailwind class free, right here. ColorArchive Pro lifts the daily export limit — 10 a day signed in, 3 without an account.

Upgrade to ProFree downloadView collections

Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Amber Dusk Faint#5F5C4E · hsl(50, 10%, 34%)Amber Dusk Muted#666147 · hsl(50, 18%, 34%)Amber Dusk Dust#6D6640 · hsl(50, 26%, 34%)Amber Dusk Soft#746A39 · hsl(50, 34%, 34%)Amber Dusk Clear#867628 · hsl(50, 54%, 34%)Amber Dusk Vivid#978117 · hsl(50, 74%, 34%)Amber Dusk Bright#A0870E · hsl(50, 84%, 34%)Amber Dusk Pure#A68C07 · hsl(50, 92%, 34%)
More from Yellow →
Appears in collections
Scorched EarthSolar Flare