Opulent Past Ruby
Opulent Past Ruby (#A00921) 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 (350°, 89%, 33%) 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
Latin opulentus, rich / wealthy — derived from ops (wealth). As a color modifier, opulent implies a saturated-and-luxurious quality, the deep-rich color of Belle-Époque and Gilded-Age interior-decoration silk-and-velvet textiles. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to lavish and sumptuous.
Old English passed, gone-by. As a color modifier, past implies a memory-and-faded-time quality, the visual register of vintage-and-period multi-decade faded-and-storied memory-laden period-correct-faded surfaces under multi-decade faded-and-storied period light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to yore and eld 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.