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Heroic Lane Crimson

#ad271f
Notes

Heroic Lane Crimson (#AD271F) 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 (3°, 70%, 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
#ad271f
RGB
rgb(173, 39, 31)
HSL
hsl(3, 70%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(3 12% 32%)
OKLCH
oklch(49.1% 0.172 28.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6240 0.2012 0.1563)
HSV
hsv(3, 82%, 68%)
LAB
lab(38.62% 52.82 38.47)
LCH
lch(38.62% 65.35 36.06)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 77%, 82%, 32%)

Etymology

Heroic
adjective

Latin hēroicus, of a hero — derived from Greek hērōs. As a color modifier, heroic implies a saturated-and-monumental-and-victorious quality, the deep-rich color of Wagner-and-Sibelius late-Romantic-era musical-and-painterly heroic-mode. Sits at the bold-and-celebratory end of the grid, parallel to triumphant and valiant.

Lane
modifier

Old English lane, narrow path / way. As a color modifier, lane implies a narrow-rural-track quality, the visual register of Devon-and-Cornish-and-Welsh deep-cut hedge-banked rural-back-lane sunken-track surfaces under West-Country-and-Welsh-back-lane filtered-and-sunken light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to path and road 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.

#ad271f
Original
#51481c
Protanopia
#726518
Deuteranopia
#bf0027
Tritanopia
#434343
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
6.80:1
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
3.09:1

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
##AD271F
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6240 0.2012 0.1563)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.172

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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