Triumphant Inca Crimson
Triumphant Inca Crimson (#8B1D1B) 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 (1°, 67%, 33%) 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 cyan. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Latin triumphāns, celebrating victory — present-participle of triumphāre. As a color modifier, triumphant implies a saturated-and-celebratory-and-victorious quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Imperial-period triumphal-arch spolia relief and Arch-of-Titus victory imagery. Sits at the bold-and-celebratory end of the grid, parallel to victorious and conquering.
Quechua Inka, prince. As a color modifier, inca implies a Cuzco-and-Andean-Imperial quality, the visual register of Inca-Empire hand-cut stone-and-textile-and-quipu Inca-Imperial Andean-Highland and-Sapa-Inca surfaces under high-altitude Inca-Empire Cuzco-and-Machu-Picchu Andean-Highland light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to aztec and toltec in usage.
From the Old Spanish cremesin, itself from the Arabic qirmiz — the kermes scale insect, dried and ground into a brilliant carmine dye prized in the medieval Mediterranean. For centuries the most expensive red on a draper's shelf, reserved for cardinals, kings, and the cloth that gave English the word crimson. Cooler than scarlet, deeper than rose; the color of pomegranate seeds and a serious occasion.
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.
Wide gamut
The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.
Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.