colors
Back to gallery

Rugged Ceres Crimson

#bb4964
Notes

Rugged Ceres Crimson (#BB4964) 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 (346°, 46%, 51%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#bb4964
RGB
rgb(187, 73, 100)
HSL
hsl(346, 46%, 51%)
HWB
hwb(346 29% 27%)
OKLCH
oklch(56.5% 0.148 8.6)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6804 0.3150 0.3949)
HSV
hsv(346, 61%, 73%)
LAB
lab(47.30% 48.25 8.53)
LCH
lch(47.30% 49.00 10.02)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 61%, 47%, 27%)

Etymology

Rugged
adjective

Old Norse rugga, rough / coarse — adjectival suffix -ed. As a color modifier, rugged implies a saturated-and-rough-and-weathered quality, the deep-rich color of Scottish-Highlands-and-Norwegian-fjord outdoor-and-mountain landscape. Sits at the bold-and-weathered end of the grid, parallel to tough and sinewy in usage.

Ceres
modifier

Latin Ceres, Roman-goddess-of-grain. As a color modifier, ceres implies a dwarf-planet-and-asteroid-belt-and-grain-goddess quality, the visual register of Ceres-dwarf-planet-and-asteroid-belt hand-dwarf-planet-and-asteroid-belt-and-grain-goddess Ceres-dwarf-planet-and-asteroid-belt-and-Dawn-mission ceres-and-dwarf-planet-and-asteroid-belt surfaces under Ceres-dwarf-planet-and-asteroid-belt-and-Dawn-mission inner-asteroid-belt-and-Occator-crater dwarf-planet-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vesta and pallas 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.

#bb4964
Original
#616265
Protanopia
#7f7961
Deuteranopia
#cb3a53
Tritanopia
#636363
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
4.94:1
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
4.25:1

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
##BB4964
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6804 0.3150 0.3949)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.148

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.

Related Colors

Canvas