colors
Back to gallery

Victorious Thaw Crimson

#ad2e1f
Notes

Victorious Thaw Crimson (#AD2E1F) 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 (6°, 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
#ad2e1f
RGB
rgb(173, 46, 31)
HSL
hsl(6, 70%, 40%)
HWB
hwb(6 12% 32%)
OKLCH
oklch(49.8% 0.166 30.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6250 0.2217 0.1584)
HSV
hsv(6, 82%, 68%)
LAB
lab(39.48% 50.42 39.30)
LCH
lch(39.48% 63.93 37.93)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 73%, 82%, 32%)

Etymology

Victorious
adjective

Latin victōriōsus, of victory — derived from victor (winner). As a color modifier, victorious implies a saturated-and-celebratory-and-conquering quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Imperial victory-procession purpura-dyed paludamentum cloak. Sits at the bold-and-celebratory end of the grid, parallel to triumphant and conquering.

Thaw
modifier

Old English thawian, to-melt-or-soften. As a color modifier, thaw implies a spring-melt-and-softening-frost quality, the visual register of English-spring-and-Pennine-thaw hand-spring-melt-and-softening-frost English-spring-and-Pennine-thaw-and-Cumbria-Highland-thaw thaw-and-spring-melt-and-softening-frost surfaces under English-spring-and-Pennine-thaw-and-Cumbria-Highland-thaw Yorkshire-Dales-and-Lake-District-and-Cairngorm spring-melt-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to slush and rain 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.

#ad2e1f
Original
#544b1c
Protanopia
#746719
Deuteranopia
#bf002c
Tritanopia
#484848
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
6.59:1
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
3.19:1

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
##AD2E1F
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6250 0.2217 0.1584)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.166

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