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AI Color

Shades of Yellow

Eleven steps of yellow from the lightest tint to the darkest shade, all sharing hue 47° and 89% saturation so they work together as a set. Yellow reaches maximum chroma at a very high lightness, which is why it almost never works as a text color.

Using a yellow ramp in a design system

A ramp like this one is the unit of work in a modern design system. Rather than choosing individual colors for each component, you assign roles to steps: the 50 and 100 steps become backgrounds and hover states, the 200 and 300 steps become borders and dividers, the 500 step is the brand color itself, and the 700 through 900 steps carry text and pressed states.

Because every step here shares a hue and saturation, the resulting interface reads as one coherent surface. The moment you hand-pick a color that sits outside the ramp, it will look subtly wrong even to people who cannot articulate why.

Check the steps you intend to pair before you ship them. The lightest tints will not carry text on white, and the darkest shades will not carry white text at small sizes in every case. Run them through the contrast checker once and record the results.

Yellow color palettes

Full palettes built around yellow, ready to copy as CSS or Tailwind tokens.

  • Yellow Muted Terrace

    429

    Yellow Muted Terrace color palette using #fcd0d7, #aefca1, #d475e9, #49dacd, #ecdd15.

  • Beige Electric Archive

    382

    Beige Electric Archive color palette using #f5f5dc, #efeed5, #e6e4ae, #d0d043, #95941d.

  • Gold Wild Harbour

    374

    Gold Wild Harbour color palette using #faf4cc, #f6e189, #f3dc34, #ffd700, #a18806.

  • Amber Dusty Morning

    366

    Amber Dusty Morning color palette using #f9efce, #9db6f9, #e5b536, #ffbf00, #102c92.

  • Light Winter Antique Prairie

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    Light Winter Antique Prairie color palette using #eceff5, #ece4ce, #a2b2d7, #bfab81, #6781c7.

  • Beige Golden Terrace

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    Beige Golden Terrace color palette using #f5f5dc, #f2f0db, #e8e8b3, #c6cf3f, #92941d.

  • Sunflower Frosted Meadow

    351

    Sunflower Frosted Meadow color palette using #f4efcc, #b3c3f8, #e7d670, #2a43e0, #c4ac1c.

  • Website Frosted Ember

    351

    Website Frosted Ember color palette using #e7ecf6, #eedcae, #5b77b5, #785c26, #1e263d.

See all yellow color palettes

Shades of other colors

Shades of yellow FAQ

How many shades of yellow are there?

In principle there are millions, because a shade is any value along the lightness axis of a hue. In practice a design system needs about eleven steps, which is exactly what this page provides: five tints above the base, the base itself, and five shades below it.

What is the hex code for yellow?

The base yellow on this page is #f2c31d, which is hsl(47, 89%, 53%). Every other swatch keeps the same hue and saturation and varies only lightness, so they all belong together.

What is the difference between a tint, a tone and a shade?

A tint is the color mixed with white, a shade is the color mixed with black, and a tone is the color mixed with grey, which lowers saturation. This page shows tints and shades; use the color mixer if you want tones.

Which shade of yellow should I use for text?

Use the darkest swatch that still reads as yellow rather than black. On this page that is generally the 800 or 900 step, which reaches 11.83:1 against white.