Cadmium yellow: Color codes, color palettes and uses

Loud. Lush. Unapologetically yellow. Cadmium yellow isn’t just a pigment — it’s a power move in color form.

Born from a 19th-century scientific discovery, this iconic hue has been lighting up canvases and palettes ever since. By tweaking the levels of sulfur and zinc, pigment makers created a spectrum that ranges from zesty lemon to almost-orange sunshine. Basically, cadmium yellow is what happens when chemistry meets drama.

Its digital alter ego? Hex code #FFF600 — a punchy, cooler version of what you’d find in a painter’s tube. It flirts with lemon yellow (# FAFA33), but cadmium brings the warmth and swagger that lemon can’t quite match.

In this post, we’re diving into the bold world of cadmium yellow: what makes it tick, how it compares to similar shades, and how to wield it like the design weapon it is. Here’s what we’ll cover:

If you want color inspiration, we’ve got you. Here are five gorgeous cadmium yellow palettes that will help you use cadmium yellow to wow your audience.

To create this monochromatic cadmium yellow palette, add a small percentage of black to darken the hue to varying degrees. This creates various cadmium yellow shades, altering the visual impact of the hue and adding depth and contrast while creating a visually harmonious palette.

The hex, CMYK, and RGB codes for this palette are:

Using analogous colors, which sit next to each other on the color wheel, is another great way to create a harmonious color scheme. With this analogous cadmium yellow color palette, the colors move from the relative coolness of cadmium yellow to the warmer cadmium yellow medium (#FFD800) to the even warmer cadmium yellow deep (#FFB900) and on to orange. This is an excellent palette for creating an upbeat feeling in your projects.

Color theory is a fascinating field. This video is perfect for beginners who want to know more about it.

Create a complementary color scheme by pairing cadmium yellow with violet, the opposite color on the color wheel. When complementary colors are placed together in a project, they create unparalleled vibrance. In addition to pairing cadmium yellow with violet, we have added a deeper shade of cadmium yellow with its complement, which is also a deeper shade of the violet hue.

We made this triadic cadmium yellow color palette by selecting two colors equally spaced on the color wheel from cadmium yellow. So named because the three form a triangle, triadic schemes can create a rather high-intensity palette. With a triadic color scheme, it’s important to use neutrals—white, gray, or black—or shades of your triadic colors to create visual relief and add balance to your palette. Here, we’ve included a shade of cadmium yellow as a fourth color in our triadic scheme.

You can find a tetradic combination by placing a square on the color wheel with one corner on cadmium yellow. Where the other three corners land, the three different colors will make up your tetradic color scheme. This tetradic cadmium yellow color scheme is loud and intense and will make your design stand out, but you must include neutrals and/or tints, tones, and shades of your triadic colors to create visual balance.

Though our response to color is influenced by several factors, including our culture and past experience, specific colors evoke certain moods and feelings. Yellow is bright, intense, and eye-catching. It’s the color of sunshine, so we tend to consider it a cheerful color that evokes happiness, warmth, and positivity.

Yellow is also the most visible of colors. It also grabs the most attention, which is why so many road signs are in yellow.

Want to learn more about color psychology? Check out this video:

The history of the cadmium yellow pigment begins with the 1817 discovery of the element cadmium by Friedrich Stromeyer, a German scientist. However, it wasn’t until the 1840s that the cadmium yellow pigment was born when another chemist, Georges Audemars, discovered that when cadmium sulfide was heated with sulfur, it produced a bright-yellow pigment.

From its introduction, the cadmium yellow pigment’s bright and intense hue proved very attractive to painters. It was also highly versatile and could be mixed with other colors to create a wide range of hues. Unfortunately, cadmium was initially scarce and expensive, which slowed its adoption.

Claude Monet was one of the earliest users of cadmium yellow. Once he discovered the pigment, he became an enthusiastic user and added it to almost all of his subsequent paintings.

As its availability increased, cadmium yellow’s popularity grew, and soon, a wide range of artists were using it in their works.

Vincent Van Gogh used cadmium yellow to achieve the bright yellows in his Sunflowers, and Gustave Klimt used it to create those warm, vibrant gold tones in his iconic work The Kiss.

Other renowned artists who used this vibrant and distinct pigment include Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, Piet Mondrian, and Joan Miro.

Early cadmium yellow paints were known for their susceptibility to fading and discoloration, but modern cadmium yellow paints are produced differently and are much more stable and lightfast. Though still relatively expensive compared to other pigments, today, cadmium yellow is widely available and continues to be popular with artists.

Cadmium yellow is usually associated with art, so it isn’t used in fashion circles. However, the hue is still very popular in fashion and is known by several names, including canary yellow. No matter what people call it, cadmium yellow appears on the runway quite often and is one of the trending colors this spring and summer.

The hue is popular not only in clothing but also in making statement pieces for handbags and other accessories.

Sportswear is not to be left out when it comes to making a fashion statement in yellow. Travis Scott in collaboration with Jordan opted for canary yellow combo for his sneaker.

Cadmium yellow is an excellent choice for branding due to its instant brightness and warmth. It attracts attention across both luxury and everyday brands. For example, Ferrari uses a predominantly yellow logo. The vibrant background behind its black prancing horse adds excitement and elegance, perfectly reinforcing the brand’s association with high performance and distinctive style.

It’s no wonder that Nesquik uses bright yellow as its brand for wake-me-up breakfast products. The brand is definitely going for the idea of “sunshine in a bottle” as the best way to start the day.

A: Cadmium yellow is an intense and eye-catching yellow hue used in art, fashion, and design. Cadmium yellow pigments can range from cool yellow to warm yellow-orange.

A: Cadmium yellow pigments are created in a lab from cadmium sulfide, to which varying amounts of sulfur and/or zinc are added. To recreate cadmium yellow digitally, you just need the hex code: #FFF600. If for some reason the hex code is not accessible to you, choose a fully saturated medium to coolish yellow.

A: Cadmium yellow paint used by painters is a pigment derived from cadmium sulfide, so yes, it is a cadmium-based pigment.

A: Cadmium yellow light is a warm color, but it would be considered a cool yellow among yellows as it sits closer to yellow-green on the color wheel.

A: Cadmium yellow is also a warm color. In digital art, it is a moderately cool yellow, as it sits closer to the yellow-green spectrum on the color wheel, although it is not as cool as cadmium yellow light.

A: Cadmium yellow medium is considered a warm yellow. It sits in the middle of the color wheel and carries orange undertones not found in cadmium yellow.

A: Cadmium is a heavy metal that is both toxic and carcinogenic, so yes, cadmium yellow pigments are toxic, especially if inhaled or ingested. However, today, paint manufacturers have significantly reduced cadmium solubility in their paints so that it is not easily absorbed by the body. This substantially reduces the danger to painters.

A: No, cadmium yellow is considered an opaque pigment.

A: Cadmium yellow is a bold, bright, moderately cool yellow pigment.

A: For painters, Hansa yellow or Arylide yellow are suitable substitutes for cadmium yellow. For digital artists, there are many alternatives. Canary yellow (hex code #FFEF00) is a great choice, as is lemon yellow (hex code #FAFA33).

Whether you’re creating a new website or business cards, Envato offers several incredible cadmium yellow creative assets that will make your task easier.

For more color inspiration, check out our articles on green, dark cherry red, and cerulean blue.