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Praetorian Page Crimson

#ab2a20
Notes

Praetorian Page Crimson (#AB2A20) 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 (4°, 68%, 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
#ab2a20
RGB
rgb(171, 42, 32)
HSL
hsl(4, 68%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(4 13% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(49.0% 0.167 29.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6172 0.2088 0.1592)
HSV
hsv(4, 81%, 67%)
LAB
lab(38.59% 51.23 37.76)
LCH
lch(38.59% 63.64 36.39)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 75%, 81%, 33%)

Etymology

Praetorian
adjective

Latin praetōriānus, of the praetor — adjectival suffix, referring to the Roman-Imperial elite guard-cohorts. As a color modifier, praetorian implies a saturated-and-elite-and-imperial-guard quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Praetorian-Guard elite-imperial-bodyguard scarlet-tunic-and-bronze-armor military-formation. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to spartan and imperial.

Page
modifier

Old French page, young-attendant. As a color modifier, page implies a court-and-knight's-young-attendant quality, the visual register of English-and-French-Court-Page hand-stitched livery-and-tabard-and-page-cap court-and-knight's-young-attendant surfaces under English-and-French-Court-Page hand-stitched livery-and-tabard ceremonial-court light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to knight and squire 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.

#ab2a20
Original
#52491d
Protanopia
#71651a
Deuteranopia
#bd0029
Tritanopia
#454545
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).
AAon White
6.81:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AA Largeon Black
3.08:1

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
##AB2A20
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6172 0.2088 0.1592)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.167

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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