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Patrician Umber Crimson

#ab1e25
Notes

Patrician Umber Crimson (#AB1E25) 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 (357°, 70%, 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
#ab1e25
RGB
rgb(171, 30, 37)
HSL
hsl(357, 70%, 39%)
HWB
hwb(357 12% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(48.1% 0.175 24.9)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6158 0.1758 0.1709)
HSV
hsv(357, 82%, 67%)
LAB
lab(37.34% 55.05 33.64)
LCH
lch(37.34% 64.51 31.43)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 82%, 78%, 33%)

Etymology

Patrician
adjective

Latin patrīcius, of the noble class — derived from pater (father). As a color modifier, patrician implies a saturated-and-aristocratic-and-Roman-Republic quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Patrician-class toga and senatorial-livery hereditary-aristocratic dress. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to senatorial and imperial.

Umber
modifier

Latin umbra, shadow. As a color modifier, umber implies a shadowed-and-Umbrian-earth-pigment quality, the visual register of Caravaggio-and-Rembrandt-umber hand-shadowed-and-Umbrian-earth-pigment Caravaggio-and-Rembrandt-and-Vermeer-Dutch-Golden-Age umbered-and-shadowed-and-deep-glazed surfaces under Caravaggio-and-Rembrandt-and-Vermeer chiaroscuro-and-tenebrist-and-glazed studio-window-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to shade and gloom 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.

#ab1e25
Original
#4c4524
Protanopia
#6e631f
Deuteranopia
#bd0023
Tritanopia
#3c3c3c
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
7.13:1
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
2.94:1

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
##AB1E25
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6158 0.1758 0.1709)
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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