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Lordly Wire Crimson

#c12a2b
Notes

Lordly Wire Crimson (#C12A2B) 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 (360°, 64%, 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
#c12a2b
RGB
rgb(193, 42, 43)
HSL
hsl(360, 64%, 46%)
HWB
hwb(360 16% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(53.1% 0.187 26.1)
HSV
hsv(360, 78%, 76%)
LAB
lab(43.02% 58.34 37.55)
LCH
lch(43.02% 69.38 32.77)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 78%, 78%, 24%)

Etymology

Lordly
adjective

Old English hlāford-līc, lord-like — adjectival suffix -ly. As a color modifier, lordly implies a saturated-and-aristocratic-and-haughty quality, the deep-rich color of pre-modern English-and-French manorial-aristocracy livery and hereditary-estate household-textile. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to princely and patrician.

Wire
modifier

Old English wīr, wire. As a color modifier, wire implies a thin-drawn-metal quality, the visual register of hand-drawn-and-coiled-wire hand-drawn-and-coiled iron-and-copper-and-gold thin-drawn-metal-wire-and-mesh surfaces under hand-drawn-and-coiled-wire workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to mesh and foil 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.

#c12a2b
Original
#595129
Protanopia
#7e7125
Deuteranopia
#d5002d
Tritanopia
#4a4a4a
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
5.78:1
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

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