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Knightly Cope Crimson

#b51e28
Notes

Knightly Cope Crimson (#B51E28) 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 (356°, 72%, 41%) 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
#b51e28
RGB
rgb(181, 30, 40)
HSL
hsl(356, 72%, 41%)
HWB
hwb(356 12% 29%)
OKLCH
oklch(50.0% 0.184 24.4)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6518 0.1824 0.1834)
HSV
hsv(356, 83%, 71%)
LAB
lab(39.43% 58.02 34.73)
LCH
lch(39.43% 67.62 30.90)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 83%, 78%, 29%)

Etymology

Knightly
adjective

Old English cniht, young man / knight — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, knightly implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-medieval quality, the deep-rich color of medieval-English-and-French knight-and-squire armorial-bearings-and-livery tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to gallant and cavalier.

Cope
modifier

Latin cappa, long-ecclesiastical-cloak. As a color modifier, cope implies a long-ecclesiastical-cloak-and-bishop's-cope quality, the visual register of Anglican-and-Catholic-bishop's-cope hand-long-ecclesiastical-cloak-and-bishop's-cope Anglican-and-Catholic-bishop's-cope-and-Westminster-and-Vatican cope-and-long-ecclesiastical-cloak surfaces under Anglican-and-Catholic-bishop's-cope-and-Westminster-and-Vatican Westminster-Abbey-and-Sistine-Chapel ecclesiastical-cloak-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cloak and cape 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.

#b51e28
Original
#504827
Protanopia
#746822
Deuteranopia
#c80024
Tritanopia
#3f3f3f
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
6.60:1
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
3.18:1

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
##B51E28
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6518 0.1824 0.1834)
P3 has visible headroomOKLCH chroma 0.184

This color is chromatic enough that authoring it as P3 native (instead of clamping to sRGB) gives a perceptibly more saturated render on wide-gamut displays — modern Macs, iPhones, iPads, and most recent OLED laptops.

Related Colors

Canvas