colors
Back to gallery

Heroic Easter Crimson

#c22f31
Notes

Heroic Easter Crimson (#C22F31) 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 (359°, 61%, 47%) 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
#c22f31
RGB
rgb(194, 47, 49)
HSL
hsl(359, 61%, 47%)
HWB
hwb(359 18% 24%)
OKLCH
oklch(53.8% 0.184 25.3)
HSV
hsv(359, 76%, 76%)
LAB
lab(43.84% 57.31 35.06)
LCH
lch(43.84% 67.19 31.46)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 76%, 75%, 24%)

Etymology

Heroic
adjective

Latin hēroicus, of a hero — derived from Greek hērōs. As a color modifier, heroic implies a saturated-and-monumental-and-victorious quality, the deep-rich color of Wagner-and-Sibelius late-Romantic-era musical-and-painterly heroic-mode. Sits at the bold-and-celebratory end of the grid, parallel to triumphant and valiant.

Easter
modifier

Old English Ēastre, Easter. As a color modifier, easter implies a Paschal-and-spring-feast quality, the visual register of Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican Easter-feast spring-resurrection white-and-gold-and-cream paschal liturgical surfaces under Paschal-feast spring-resurrection candlelight. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to advent and yule 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.

#c22f31
Original
#5b532f
Protanopia
#80732b
Deuteranopia
#d60032
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
5.61:1
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
3.74:1

Related Colors

Canvas