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Grounded Pluto Crimson

#c94648
Notes

Grounded Pluto Crimson (#C94648) 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°, 55%, 53%) 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
#c94648
RGB
rgb(201, 70, 72)
HSL
hsl(359, 55%, 53%)
HWB
hwb(359 27% 21%)
OKLCH
oklch(57.7% 0.167 23.1)
P3
color(display-p3 0.7296 0.3106 0.3004)
HSV
hsv(359, 65%, 79%)
LAB
lab(48.60% 52.06 27.55)
LCH
lch(48.60% 58.90 27.88)
CMYK
cmyk(0%, 65%, 64%, 21%)

Etymology

Grounded
adjective

Old English grund, bottom / foundation — past-participle of ground. As a color modifier, grounded implies a saturated-and-foundational quality where the hue anchors the surrounding palette through its weighty presence. Sits at the bold-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to centered and anchored.

Pluto
modifier

Latin Pluto, Roman-god-of-underworld-and-dwarf-planet. As a color modifier, pluto implies a Roman-god-of-underworld-and-Kuiper-belt-dwarf-planet quality, the visual register of Roman-Pluto-and-New-Horizons-flyby hand-Roman-god-of-underworld-and-Kuiper-belt-dwarf-planet Roman-Pluto-and-New-Horizons-flyby-and-Tombaugh-Regio pluto-and-Roman-god-of-underworld surfaces under Roman-Pluto-and-New-Horizons-flyby-and-Tombaugh-Regio 2015-flyby-and-heart-shaped-Tombaugh-Regio dwarf-planet-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to neptune and saturn 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.

#c94648
Original
#696247
Protanopia
#8a7e44
Deuteranopia
#dc2848
Tritanopia
#626262
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
4.72:1
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
4.45:1

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
##C94648
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.7296 0.3106 0.3004)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.167

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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