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Knightly Hewn Crimson

#bd3030
Notes

Knightly Hewn Crimson (#BD3030) 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 (0°, 59%, 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
#bd3030
RGB
rgb(189, 48, 48)
HSL
hsl(0, 59%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(0 19% 26%)
OKLCH
oklch(53.0% 0.178 25.7)
P3
color(display-p3 0.6827 0.2360 0.2143)
HSV
hsv(0, 75%, 74%)
LAB
lab(42.99% 55.41 34.42)
LCH
lch(42.99% 65.23 31.85)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 75%, 75%, 26%)

Etymology

Knightly
adjective

Old English cniht, young man / knight — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, knightly implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-medieval quality, the deep-rich color of medieval-English-and-French knight-and-squire armorial-bearings-and-livery tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to gallant and cavalier.

Hewn
modifier

Old English hēawan, to-hew. As a color modifier, hewn implies a hand-cut-stone-or-timber quality, the visual register of hand-hewn-stone-and-timber hand-cut-and-shaped stone-and-timber-and-log hand-hewn-construction-and-craft surfaces under hand-hewn stone-and-timber workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to carved and cast 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.

#bd3030
Original
#5a522e
Protanopia
#7d712b
Deuteranopia
#d00032
Tritanopia
#4e4e4e
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
##BD3030
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.6827 0.2360 0.2143)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.178

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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