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Sure Tourmaline

#ac6572
Notes

Sure Tourmaline (#AC6572) 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 (349°, 30%, 54%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#ac6572
RGB
rgb(172, 101, 114)
HSL
hsl(349, 30%, 54%)
HWB
hwb(349 40% 33%)
OKLCH
oklch(59.0% 0.093 8.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6362 0.4093 0.4488)
HSV
hsv(349, 41%, 67%)
LAB
lab(51.03% 30.17 5.12)
LCH
lch(51.03% 30.60 9.63)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 41%, 34%, 33%)

Etymology

Sure
adjective

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Tourmaline
noun

A boron silicate mineral that crystallizes in nearly every color depending on its trace elements — green tourmaline (verdelite) is the chromium and vanadium-bearing variety, mined principally in Brazil, Madagascar, and Maine. The color refers to a faceted green tourmaline: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the high refractive index of a quality cut gem. Cooler than emerald, warmer than aquamarine.

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.

#ac6572
Original
#717172
Protanopia
#837f71
Deuteranopia
#b85f6a
Tritanopia
#757575
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).
AA Largeon White
4.32:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAon Black
4.86:1

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
##AC6572
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6362 0.4093 0.4488)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.093

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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