Twilit Adonis
Twilit Adonis (#81101D) is a deep red with a jewel character. It carries the deep, saturated richness of a gemstone. Authoritative and slightly formal, it works well for type and heavy UI elements. Its HSL profile (353°, 78%, 28%) places it in the highly saturated band at a dark lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
An adjectival form of twilight, coined in the late nineteenth century. Twilit describes a color seen at twilight — the slight cooling and desaturation that low ambient light introduces. Sits in the deep-and-cool corner, lighter than somber and bluer than shadowed. Almost exclusively literary.
Adonis annua, the small wild buttercup of European meadows — also called pheasant's eye — with single deep red flowers and dark centers. Named for the Greek mythological youth whose blood, in Ovid's telling, sprouted the flower. The color refers to a fresh Adonis bloom in late spring: a saturated, slightly cool deep red with the matte finish of a six-petaled wild flower. Deeper than coral.
Closest matches
The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.
Variations
Click any swatch to exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.
The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.