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Majestic Bordeaux

#bb3238
Notes

Majestic Bordeaux (#BB3238) 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 (357°, 58%, 46%) 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
#bb3238
RGB
rgb(187, 50, 56)
HSL
hsl(357, 58%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(357 20% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(52.9% 0.173 23.2)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6759 0.2410 0.2396)
HSV
hsv(357, 73%, 73%)
LAB
lab(42.97% 54.45 29.58)
LCH
lch(42.97% 61.97 28.51)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 73%, 70%, 27%)

Etymology

Majestic
adjective

Latin māiestātis, majesty — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, majestic implies a saturated-and-imposing-grandeur quality, the deep-rich color of Salisbury-Cathedral-and-Chartres-Cathedral Gothic-architecture monumental presence against the open sky. Sits at the bold-and-imposing end of the grid, parallel to regal and imperial.

Bordeaux
noun

The French wine region — and the deep red of Cabernet Sauvignon-and-Merlot blends from the Médoc and Saint-Émilion. Bordeaux as a color refers specifically to a young Médoc in a glass: a deep, slightly red-purple-shifted dark red with the optical clarity of high-tannin wine. Deeper than burgundy, cooler than wine.

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.

#bb3238
Original
#5a5337
Protanopia
#7c7034
Deuteranopia
#ce0036
Tritanopia
#505050
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
5.79:1
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
3.63:1

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
##BB3238
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6759 0.2410 0.2396)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.173

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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