Why HSL complements look unbalanced
Rotating hue in HSL changes perceived lightness. This is the same colour done properly, for comparison.
#facc15
A very light, moderately saturated chartreuse. Closest CSS name: `gold`.
- Hex
- #facc15
- RGB
- rgb(250 204 21)
- HSL
- hsl(47.9 95.8% 53.1%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.861 0.173 91.9)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0% 18.4% 91.6% 1.96%)
- Nearest name
- gold
Readable text
White text
1.53:1
Black text
13.71:1
Use black text. Passes AA for normal text: yes · AAA: yes · AA for large text: yes
Worth knowing
Worth knowing
10 derived colours are outside sRGB
Rotating hue at this chroma produces colours a normal screen cannot display, so they have been clipped to the nearest sRGB colour. The hex values shown are therefore not exactly what the maths asked for, and the harmony will look slightly less even than it should.
Fix: Lower the chroma of the input colour before deriving harmonies, or accept the clipped values as an approximation.
Note
CMYK here is a naive conversion
CMYK has no fixed meaning without an output profile — the same numbers print differently on different presses and papers. The value shown is the standard arithmetic conversion, not a colour-managed one.
Fix: For print work, convert in software with the press profile applied.
Complementary — the opposite hue
complementary
#aac8ff
clipped to sRGB
Analogous — neighbouring hues
analogous −30°
#ffb444
clipped to sRGB
analogous +30°
#bfe251
Triadic — evenly spaced
triadic +120°
#00edff
clipped to sRGB
triadic +240°
#ffa4ff
clipped to sRGB
Split-complementary — softer opposites
split-complementary +150°
#52ddff
clipped to sRGB
split-complementary +210°
#e7b4ff
clipped to sRGB
Monochromatic — one hue, five lightnesses
lightness 0.25
#3e1300
clipped to sRGB
lightness 0.4
#693e00
clipped to sRGB
lightness 0.55
#966a00
clipped to sRGB
lightness 0.7
#c59800
clipped to sRGB
lightness 0.85
#f6c906
Try your own colour
Paste one on the home page — you can also pick a colour straight out of a photo there. This page is available as markdown.