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Cavalier Atrium Crimson

#aa2121
Notes

Cavalier Atrium Crimson (#AA2121) is a true red with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (0°, 67%, 40%) 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
#aa2121
RGB
rgb(170, 33, 33)
HSL
hsl(0, 67%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(0 13% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(48.1% 0.173 26.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6125 0.1830 0.1593)
HSV
hsv(0, 81%, 67%)
LAB
lab(37.38% 53.79 35.93)
LCH
lch(37.38% 64.69 33.74)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 81%, 81%, 33%)

Etymology

Cavalier
adjective

Italian cavaliere, horseman / knight via Latin caballārius. As a color modifier, cavalier implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-aristocratic quality, the deep-rich color of English-Civil-War royalist Cavalier military-faction velvet-and-lace-and-feathered-hat livery. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to gallant and knightly.

Atrium
modifier

Latin atrium, Roman-house-courtyard. As a color modifier, atrium implies a Roman-and-modern-courtyard-with-skylight quality, the visual register of Roman-Pompeii-and-modern-Mid-Century-Modern-atrium hand-built central-courtyard-with-skylight atrium-and-impluvium-and-courtyard architectural surfaces under Roman-and-Mid-Century-Modern atrium-skylight light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to loggia and quad 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.

#aa2121
Original
#4d451f
Protanopia
#6e631a
Deuteranopia
#bc0023
Tritanopia
#3e3e3e
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
7.12:1
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
2.95:1

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
##AA2121
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6125 0.1830 0.1593)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.173

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.

Related Colors

Canvas