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Saturated Nave Crimson

#a81920
Notes

Saturated Nave Crimson (#A81920) is a true 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 (357°, 74%, 38%) 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
#a81920
RGB
rgb(168, 25, 32)
HSL
hsl(357, 74%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(357 10% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(47.2% 0.176 25.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6045 0.1617 0.1540)
HSV
hsv(357, 85%, 66%)
LAB
lab(36.23% 55.25 35.20)
LCH
lch(36.23% 65.51 32.50)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 85%, 81%, 34%)

Etymology

Saturated
adjective

From the Latin saturatus, past participle of saturare, to fill. A technical color term in modern usage — saturation is one of the three axes of HSL (with hue and lightness). As a modifier, saturated implies that the hue is at or near its maximum chromatic intensity. Sits at the bold-and-bright top of the grid.

Nave
modifier

Latin navis, ship. As a color modifier, nave implies a long-cathedral-central-aisle quality, the visual register of Romanesque-and-Gothic-cathedral hand-built central-aisle nave-and-clerestory-and-vault architectural surfaces under Gothic-and-Romanesque clerestory-and-stained-glass light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to apse and aisle in usage.

Crimson
noun

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 explore

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.

#a81920
Original
#49421e
Protanopia
#6c6019
Deuteranopia
#ba001e
Tritanopia
#383838
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
2.82:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

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.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##A81920
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6045 0.1617 0.1540)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.176

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.

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