CDDC39 (Lime 500) — RGB, HSL, CMYK and Contrast

Q: What text colour should sit on CDDC39?

Black gives 13.89:1 and white gives 1.51:1, so black wins at 13.89:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text and the 7:1 AAA threshold as well.

Every value recomputed from the hex code · WCAG 2.1 contrast ratios

A yellow at 54% lightness and 70% saturation, which puts it at 1.51:1 against white and 13.89:1 against black. The tables below give the notation conversions, the tints and shades that keep the hue intact, and the harmonies that pair with it.

CDDC39

Notation conversions

Notation	Value
HEX	`CDDC39`
RGB	rgb(205, 220, 57)
HSL	hsl(66, 70%, 54%)
CMYK	cmyk(7%, 0%, 74%, 14%)
Relative luminance	0.6446
Perceived brightness	77.2 / 100

R=205 G=220 B=57 · hue 65.5° · saturation 70.0% · lightness 54.3%

Contrast against pure white and pure black

Pair this colour with the two extremes to see which is the safer text partner. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text; AAA raises that to 7:1 and 4.5:1.

Against	Hex	Ratio	AA text	AA large	AAA text
#FFFFFF	`white`	1.51:1	fail	fail	fail
#000000	`black`	13.89:1	pass	pass	pass

Tints and shades

Lightness moves in ten-point steps while hue and saturation stay fixed, which keeps the colour recognisable in a scale. The last column is the ratio against white text, useful for deciding where a scale stops working as a background.

Step	Hex	HSL	vs white text
shade -30	`#616913`	hsl(66, 70%, 24%)	5.94:1
shade -20	`#89951a`	hsl(66, 70%, 34%)	3.29:1
shade -10	`#b2c022`	hsl(66, 70%, 44%)	2.01:1
tint +10	`#d8e464`	hsl(66, 70%, 64%)	1.38:1
tint +20	`#e3eb90`	hsl(66, 70%, 74%)	1.27:1
tint +30	`#eef3bb`	hsl(66, 70%, 84%)	1.16:1

Harmonies

Scheme	Hex
Complementary	`#4839dc`
Analogous −30	`#dc9a39`
Analogous +30	`#7cdc39`
Triadic −120	`#dc39cd`
Triadic +120	`#39cddc`

Measured rather than eyeballed: hue 65.5°, saturation 70.0%, lightness 54.3%, relative luminance 0.6446 — four decimals is the precision the WCAG formula actually needs — and perceived brightness 77.2 out of 100. Entry 17 of 69 in this library, it scores 1.51:1 on white and 13.89:1 on black, a 12.38 spread. The complementary #4839dc sits 180° away on the wheel, and the scale brackets it with #616913 below and #eef3bb above.

Nearby colours

808000 olive FFD700 gold FFC107 Amber 500 FFEB3B Yellow 500 F0E68C khaki F5F5DC beige

Frequently asked questions

What text colour should sit on CDDC39?
Black gives 13.89:1 and white gives 1.51:1, so black wins at 13.89:1. That clears the 4.5:1 AA threshold for normal text and the 7:1 AAA threshold as well.

Do the CMYK numbers match a print workflow?
They are the naive conversion from RGB, which assumes no ink limit, no colour profile and no black generation strategy. Real print work needs a profile-aware conversion; the values here are the ones the converter reports and are best used as a starting point for a designer rather than a press-ready separations file.

Convert any other colour, or test a pair against each other, in the ColrShift colour converter and contrast checker. The colour library groups every entry on this site by hue family.