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Victorious Khmer Hibiscus

#bc2b56
Notes

Victorious Khmer Hibiscus (#BC2B56) 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 (342°, 63%, 45%) 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
#bc2b56
RGB
rgb(188, 43, 86)
HSL
hsl(342, 63%, 45%)
HWB
hwb(342 17% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(53.1% 0.181 8.9)
HSV
hsv(342, 77%, 74%)
LAB
lab(42.91% 58.96 11.01)
LCH
lch(42.91% 59.98 10.58)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 77%, 54%, 26%)

Etymology

Victorious
adjective

Latin victōriōsus, of victory — derived from victor (winner). As a color modifier, victorious implies a saturated-and-celebratory-and-conquering quality, the deep-rich color of Roman-Imperial victory-procession purpura-dyed paludamentum cloak. Sits at the bold-and-celebratory end of the grid, parallel to triumphant and conquering.

Khmer
modifier

Sanskrit Khmer, Cambodian. As a color modifier, khmer implies an Angkorian-and-temple-complex quality, the visual register of Angkor-Wat-and-Bayon Khmer-Empire hand-built sandstone-and-laterite temple-and-jungle-overgrown-stonework surfaces under Angkor-Wat-and-Bayon Cambodian-jungle-canopy filtered tropical light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to toltec and median in usage.

Hibiscus
noun

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis — the showy mallow of Pacific gardens, the Hawaiian state flower, the source of the deep red sorrel tea sold across West Africa as bissap. The color refers to a fully open hibiscus petal at midday: a hot, slightly magenta red with the velvet texture of a single-day bloom. By evening the same flower has wilted; by morning it's gone.

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.

#bc2b56
Original
#515357
Protanopia
#777052
Deuteranopia
#cd003d
Tritanopia
#4d4d4d
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
5.80:1
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
3.62:1

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