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Lordly Cycle Crimson

#b42a22
Notes

Lordly Cycle Crimson (#B42A22) 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°, 68%, 42%) 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
#b42a22
RGB
rgb(180, 42, 34)
HSL
hsl(3, 68%, 42%)
HWB
hwb(3 13% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(50.7% 0.176 28.5)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6496 0.2137 0.1682)
HSV
hsv(3, 81%, 71%)
LAB
lab(40.37% 54.11 39.03)
LCH
lch(40.37% 66.72 35.80)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 77%, 81%, 29%)

Etymology

Lordly
adjective

Old English hlāford-līc, lord-like — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, lordly implies a saturated-and-aristocratic-and-haughty quality, the deep-rich color of pre-modern English-and-French manorial-aristocracy livery and hereditary-estate household-textile. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to princely and patrician.

Cycle
modifier

Greek kýklos, circle / cycle. As a color modifier, cycle implies a repeating-and-circular-time quality, the visual register of seasonal-and-lunar-and-astronomical repeating-and-cyclic period-marker celestial-and-natural cycle-and-rhythm surfaces under repeating cyclic-and-seasonal light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to phase and year 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.

#b42a22
Original
#554c1f
Protanopia
#776a1b
Deuteranopia
#c7002a
Tritanopia
#474747
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
6.37:1
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
3.29:1

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
##B42A22
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6496 0.2137 0.1682)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.176

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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