Gallant Lake
Gallant Lake (#C51881) is a true magenta with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (324°, 78%, 43%) places it in the highly saturated band at a mid lightness. Best used in small doses, like logos, CTAs, focus rings, or highlight text, where its saturation becomes a feature rather than noise. 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
Old French galant, brave / charming — present-participle of galer (to make merry). As a color modifier, gallant implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-confident quality, the deep-rich color of Three-Musketeers and Cyrano-de-Bergerac swashbuckling adventure tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to valiant and heroic.
A general term for an organic pigment laked onto an inorganic base — particularly red lakes from kermes, cochineal, or madder, used in Renaissance and Baroque oil painting where pure plant or insect dyes lacked stability. The color refers to a cochineal lake-tinted glaze in a Vermeer painting: a saturated, slightly cool deep red with the matte translucency of a thin pigment-and-binder layer.
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.