Certain Cranberry
Certain Cranberry (#BC39A1) is a true magenta with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (312°, 53%, 48%) 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 green. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Latin certus, fixed / sure — sharing root with English concern and certify. As a color modifier, certain implies a saturated-and-unambiguous quality where the hue declares its character without hesitation. Sits at the bold-and-confident end of the grid, parallel to assured and decisive in usage.
North American Vaccinium macrocarpon — a Ericaceae low-creeping wetland shrub whose deep-magenta drupe is the iconic Thanksgiving fruit and the base of cranberry juice and jellied cranberry sauce. Cranberry color refers to a freshly cooked Vaccinium macrocarpon compote in a Massachusetts kitchen: a saturated, slightly cool deep magenta with the matte finish of anthocyanin-rich cranberry-fruit pulp.
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.