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Sovereign Virgo Crimson

#b3312a
Notes

Sovereign Virgo Crimson (#B3312A) 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 (3°, 62%, 43%) 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
#b3312a
RGB
rgb(179, 49, 42)
HSL
hsl(3, 62%, 43%)
HWB
hwb(3 16% 30%)
OKLCH
oklch(51.2% 0.168 27.8)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6470 0.2339 0.1931)
HSV
hsv(3, 77%, 70%)
LAB
lab(41.14% 51.65 35.30)
LCH
lch(41.14% 62.56 34.35)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 73%, 77%, 30%)

Etymology

Sovereign
adjective

Old French soverain, supreme — derived from Latin super (above). As a color modifier, sovereign implies a saturated-and-royal-supremacy quality where the hue carries imperial-ruling-class register. Sits at the bold-and-imperial end of the grid, parallel to regal and imperial in tone.

Virgo
modifier

Latin virgo, virgin-or-maiden-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, virgo implies a maiden-and-earth-sign-and-Mercury-ruled-mutable-earth quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Virgo-and-Astraea-maiden hand-maiden-and-earth-sign-and-Mercury-ruled-mutable-earth Hellenic-Virgo-and-Astraea-maiden-and-Spica-grain virgo-and-maiden-and-earth-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Virgo-and-Astraea-maiden-and-Spica-grain late-summer-and-August-and-September mutable-earth-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to leo and libra 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.

#b3312a
Original
#574f28
Protanopia
#786b25
Deuteranopia
#c50031
Tritanopia
#4c4c4c
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
6.20:1
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
3.39:1

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
##B3312A
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6470 0.2339 0.1931)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.168

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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