Inspect GoldenRod (#DAA520) in HEX, RGB, HSL, LCH and OKLCH, check its contrast, and copy the value you need.
GoldenRod
#DAA520
Black text reads best on this background, at 9.38:1.
GoldenRod is one of the 148 CSS named colors, and resolves to #DAA520 in every browser. In numbers that is rgb(218, 165, 32) and hsl(43, 74%, 49%). Perceptually it is a light, moderately saturated color: OKLCH puts its lightness at 75% and its chroma at 0.147. It sits in the yellows at 84 degrees of OKLCH hue, and reads as a warm color.
White text only reaches 2.24:1 here, so black text is the safer pairing at 9.38:1. That combination of lightness and chroma makes it a workable mid-tone, the kind of value that lands in the middle of a shade scale.
The closest CSS named colors to GoldenRod, measured with CIEDE2000, are Orange (#FFA500), DarkGoldenRod (#B8860B), BurlyWood (#DEB887). If GoldenRod is not quite right, those are the nearest keywords to try before reaching for a custom value.
HEX
#DAA520
RGB
rgb(218, 165, 32)
HSL
hsl(43, 74%, 49%)
HWB
hwb(43 13% 15%)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 24%, 85%, 15%)
LAB
lab(71.32 12.21 68.68)
LCH
lch(71.32 69.76 79.92)
OKLCH
oklch(75.16% 0.1469 83.99)
WCAG asks for 4.5:1 between body text and its background. On #DAA520 white text measures 2.24:1 and black text 9.38:1, so black clears it and white does not.
White text on GoldenRod
WCAG 2.2
2.24:1
APCA
Lc 48
Fails AA body text
Fails AAA body text
Fails AA large text
Black text on GoldenRod
WCAG 2.2
9.38:1
APCA
Lc 60
Passes AA body text
Passes AAA body text
Passes AA large text
Check GoldenRod against any other color in the contrast checker.
GoldenRod sits at 75% OKLCH lightness. Holding its hue and chroma and moving only that value carries it up to #FFF8E9 and down to #0A0500, which keeps the family recognizable instead of letting it drift toward gray the way a plain HSL ramp does.
#E9B437
20% lighter
#F9C249
40% lighter
#FFD47C
60% lighter
#FFE6B6
80% lighter
#FFF8E9
100% lighter
#AC8000
20% darker
#7E5D00
40% darker
#533C00
60% darker
#2C1E00
80% darker
#0A0500
100% darker
Build a full accessible scale from #DAA520 in the shade generator.
Hues rotated around #DAA520 in OKLCH, then pulled back into the sRGB gamut. Each swatch is labelled with the nearest CSS named color so you have a keyword to start from.
GoldenRod sits at 84 degrees. Rotating it a half turn lands on 264 degrees, the hue directly opposite. It is the strongest pairing you can make without changing lightness, and the one most likely to vibrate if you use both at full chroma.
The neighbors of GoldenRod at 54 and 114 degrees. They stay close enough to read as the same family, which is what you want for hover states, secondary surfaces and gradients.
84, 204 and 324 degrees divide the wheel into thirds. Balanced enough to carry a whole palette without one color dominating the other two.
Instead of the complement at 264 degrees, this pair flanks it at 234 and 294. You keep most of the contrast of a complementary pairing while losing the harshness.
Explore more combinations around GoldenRod on the color wheel.
The biggest shift is under tritanopia, where #DAA520 reads as #FF8D7D, 31.9 CIEDE2000 units away. If GoldenRod is the only thing marking a state or a series, roughly one viewer in twelve will miss it.
Protanopia
#C89E19
Deuteranopia
#D7AE24
Tritanopia
#FF8D7D
Achromatopsia
#A7A7A7
The nearest CSS keywords to #DAA520, ranked by perceptual distance rather than by how close their hex digits happen to look.