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Plentiful Cochineal

#a2242e
Notes

Plentiful Cochineal (#A2242E) is a true red with a warm character. It leans warm, pulling light toward red, orange, and yellow. Naturally inviting, it suits editorial and hospitality contexts. Its HSL profile (355°, 64%, 39%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. 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.

HEX
#a2242e
RGB
rgb(162, 36, 46)
HSL
hsl(355, 64%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(355 14% 36%)
OKLCH
oklch(47.0% 0.161 22.2)
HSV
hsv(355, 78%, 64%)
LAB
lab(36.26% 50.98 26.48)
LCH
lch(36.26% 57.44 27.45)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 78%, 72%, 36%)

Etymology

Plentiful
adjective

Old French plentif, abundant — adjectival suffix -ful, derived from Latin plēnitās (fullness). As a color modifier, plentiful implies a saturated-and-generous quality where the hue carries rich visual abundance without restraint. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to abundant and bountiful.

Cochineal
noun

Dactylopius coccus, the Mexican scale insect cultivated on prickly-pear cactus and harvested for its deep red carminic-acid dye. Shipped to Spain by the conquistadors, cochineal became the second most valuable export from the New World after silver. The color refers to fresh cochineal pigment: a saturated, slightly cool deep red with the brilliance of a dye thirty times stronger than kermes.

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

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Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

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.

#a2242e
Original
#4a442d
Protanopia
#695f2a
Deuteranopia
#b20029
Tritanopia
#404040
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

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.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon White
7.43:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon Black
2.83:1

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