Weighty Dew Ruby
Weighty Dew Ruby (#85162A) 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 (349°, 72%, 30%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. 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
Old English wegan, to weigh — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, weighty implies a saturated-and-heavy-and-imposing quality where the hue carries visual mass and gravitational presence. Sits at the bold-and-weighty end of the grid, parallel to substantial and hefty in usage.
Old English dēaw, morning-moisture. As a color modifier, dew implies a beaded-and-fresh-and-morning-moisture quality, the visual register of spider-web-and-meadow-grass-dew hand-beaded-and-pearl-and-morning spider-web-and-meadow-grass-and-petal-edge dewed-and-beaded-and-pearl surfaces under spider-web-and-meadow-grass first-light-of-dawn-and-rising-mist-and-pearl morning-meadow-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mist and gleam in usage.
From the Latin ruber — simply, red. The gemstone is a chromium-tinged corundum, harder than anything in nature except diamond, and so saturated that a fine Burmese pigeon's blood ruby at auction outpaces a comparable diamond by weight. The color borrows the gem's confidence: a clear, glassy red without the brown of garnet or the blue of crimson.
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.