Booming Sail Rose
Booming Sail Rose (#B81237) 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 (347°, 82%, 40%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — present-participle of boom, sharing root with Dutch bommen. As a color modifier, booming implies a saturated-and-loud-and-confident quality where the hue announces itself with full visual amplitude. Sits at the bold-and-resonant end of the grid, parallel to resounding and thunderous.
Old English segl, sail. As a color modifier, sail implies a wind-filled-canvas-cloth quality, the visual register of Tall-Ship-and-Royal-Navy-Sail hand-stitched wind-filled-canvas-and-flax-sail tall-ship-and-frigate maritime-rigging surfaces under wind-filled tall-ship-sail-and-canvas maritime light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to mast and sheet in usage.
The Latin rosa, the Greek rhodon, the Persian gul — every European language has a different name for the same flower and the same color. Rose covers the spectrum from blush to fuchsia depending on the cultivar, but in pigment shorthand it means a cool, slightly bluish red — the inside of a damask petal, the dye that washes out of madder root.
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.