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Replete Deneb Crimson

#a81b1c
Notes

Replete Deneb Crimson (#A81B1C) 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 (360°, 72%, 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
#a81b1c
RGB
rgb(168, 27, 28)
HSL
hsl(360, 72%, 38%)
HWB
hwb(360 11% 34%)
OKLCH
oklch(47.3% 0.175 27.0)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6046 0.1664 0.1431)
HSV
hsv(360, 84%, 66%)
LAB
lab(36.36% 54.66 37.58)
LCH
lch(36.36% 66.33 34.51)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 84%, 83%, 34%)

Etymology

Replete
adjective

Latin replētus, filled — past-participle of replēre. As a color modifier, replete implies a saturated-and-fully-pigmented quality where the hue is completely loaded with its source pigment. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to brimming and suffused in usage.

Deneb
modifier

Arabic dhanab-al-dajājah, tail-of-the-hen. As a color modifier, deneb implies a Cygnus-tail-and-summer-triangle quality, the visual register of Cygnus-Swan-and-Summer-Triangle-Deneb hand-Cygnus-tail-and-summer-triangle Cygnus-Swan-and-Summer-Triangle-and-Bortle-1-sky deneb-and-Cygnus-tail-and-summer-triangle surfaces under Cygnus-Swan-and-Summer-Triangle-and-Bortle-1-sky July-and-August-summer-vista white-supergiant-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and altair 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.

#a81b1c
Original
#4a421a
Protanopia
#6c6014
Deuteranopia
#ba001e
Tritanopia
#393939
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
7.40:1
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
2.84:1

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
##A81B1C
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6046 0.1664 0.1431)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.175

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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