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Citrine Pearl Muted
Color detail

Citrine Pearl Muted

Yellow · Hue 60
Metrics
S 18% · L 84%
Contrast (WCAG)
on white1.4:1Failon black15.5:1AA
Save to journalSign in to saveStart palette from thisRecent trail

About this color

Citrine Pearl Muted (#DEDECF) belongs to the yellow family — hue 60°, 18% saturation, 84% 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-pearl-muted: #DEDECF;
  --colorarchive-citrine-pearl-muted-hsl: hsl(60, 18%, 84%);
  --colorarchive-citrine-pearl-muted-rgb: rgb(222, 222, 207);
}

AI Color Names

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

Design Context

GentleHopefulFresh
Common in

Baby Products · Organic Food · Stationery

Pairs well with

Lavender for whimsy, soft gray for sophistication, mint for freshness

Design tip

Excellent for backgrounds that need warmth without weight. Be cautious with text readability — always ensure sufficient contrast.

Cultural context ▶

Pale yellows suggest gentleness and new beginnings. Associated with spring, youth, and innocence in Western cultures.

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 pale, gentle tone — pastel territory, where the hue acts more like a tinted neutral than a stated color.

Lightness band: At this lightness the hue almost recedes into the surface around it — useful for backgrounds, hover states, and any surface where the color should suggest a mood without competing with content.

Saturation band: The low saturation pulls this color toward earthen, vintage, or editorial palettes. It reads as confident and grown-up rather than playful, and it tolerates being used in large blocks without becoming visually noisy.

Brands using a similar color

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

  • Anthropicneutral
    Light Gray · #E8E6DC
    →
  • Aesopneutral
    Cream Paper · #EFE4D2
    →
  • Starbucksneutral
    Warm Neutral · #D4E9E2
    →

Cultures using a similar color

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

  • France (Paris)Lutetian Limestone
    #E5DDC8 · Paris facade stone (Haussmannian-era buildings)
    →
  • IcelandLopapeysa Cream
    #E8DFCC · Undyed Icelandic sheep wool
    →
  • Korea (Obangsaek)Hanji Cream
    #EAE0CB · Mulberry-fiber Korean paper
    →

Color guides

Go deeper on using yellow and color in design.

Color History1950s Pastel Color Palettes: Mid-Century Mint, Coral Pink & Butter YellowColor TheoryWarm Color Palette Guide: Reds, Oranges, Yellows, and Their NeutralsUI DesignDark Mode Color Palette Guide: Building Accessible, Beautiful Dark Interfaces

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 Mist Muted
#EAEAE1 · hsl(60, 18%, 90%)
Darker companion
Citrine Bloom Muted
#CDCDB7 · hsl(60, 18%, 76%)
Complementary counterpoint
Iris Pearl Muted
#CFCFDE · hsl(240, 18%, 84%)
Analogous lead
Olive Pearl Muted
#D9DECF · hsl(80, 18%, 84%)
Analogous echo
Apricot Pearl Muted
#DED9CF · hsl(40, 18%, 84%)
Triadic +120°
Aqua Pearl Muted
#CFDEDE · hsl(180, 18%, 84%)
Triadic +240°
Fuchsia Pearl Muted
#DECFDE · hsl(300, 18%, 84%)
Split-comp +150°
Sapphire Pearl Muted
#CFD6DE · hsl(210, 18%, 84%)
Split-comp +210°
Plum Pearl Muted
#D6CFDE · hsl(270, 18%, 84%)
Export preview
Base: Citrine Pearl Muted #DEDECF
Lighter companion: Citrine Mist Muted #EAEAE1
Darker companion: Citrine Bloom Muted #CDCDB7
Complementary counterpoint: Iris Pearl Muted #CFCFDE
Analogous lead: Olive Pearl Muted #D9DECF
Analogous echo: Apricot Pearl Muted #DED9CF
Triadic +120°: Aqua Pearl Muted #CFDEDE
Triadic +240°: Fuchsia Pearl Muted #DECFDE
Split-comp +150°: Sapphire Pearl Muted #CFD6DE
Split-comp +210°: Plum Pearl Muted #D6CFDE

Compare

See how Citrine Pearl Muted compares side by side with related colors.

vsCitrine Mist MutedvsCitrine Bloom MutedvsIris Pearl MutedvsOlive Pearl MutedvsApricot Pearl MutedvsAqua Pearl Muted

Nearest neighbors

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

Search by hex
Nearby match
Citrine Pearl Faint
#DADAD2 · hsl(60, 10%, 84%)
Nearby match
Citrine Pearl Dust
#E1E1CC · hsl(60, 26%, 84%)
Nearby match
Citrine Mist Muted
#EAEAE1 · hsl(60, 18%, 90%)
Nearby match
Canary Pearl Muted
#DEDCCF · hsl(55, 18%, 84%)
Nearby match
Citrine Bloom Muted
#CDCDB7 · hsl(60, 18%, 76%)
Nearby match
Citrine Pearl Soft
#E4E4C8 · hsl(60, 34%, 84%)

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
AAA7:1
Iris Core Bright
#1414E1
AAA7.3:1
Iris Velvet Clear
#3131A5
AAA8:1
Iris Velvet Vivid
#1C1CBA
AAA8.1:1
Iris Velvet Bright
#1111C5
AAA8:1
Iris Velvet Pure
#0909CE
AAA7.1:1
Iris Dusk Dust
#40406D

Color Vision Simulation

How this color appears with different color vision deficiencies.

Full simulator
Deuteranopia
#DEDED4
Protanopia
#DEDED3
Tritanopia
#DED6D6
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Saturation ladder

Same hue and lightness, from gray to pure

Search
Citrine Pearl Faint#DADAD2 · hsl(60, 10%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Muted#DEDECF · hsl(60, 18%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Dust#E1E1CC · hsl(60, 26%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Soft#E4E4C8 · hsl(60, 34%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Clear#ECECC0 · hsl(60, 54%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Vivid#F4F4B8 · hsl(60, 74%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Bright#F8F8B4 · hsl(60, 84%, 84%)Citrine Pearl Pure#FCFCB1 · hsl(60, 92%, 84%)
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