Forthright Prow Ruby
Forthright Prow Ruby (#D71B4E) is a true red with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (344°, 78%, 47%) 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 teal. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English forð-riht, straight ahead, direct. Used as a color modifier in Anglo-Saxon-revival contexts for hues that read as honest and unguarded. Forthright red, forthright blue: the saturation is full, the hue is presented without ornamentation or qualification. Sits in the bold-bucket center alongside frank and direct.
Old French proue, ship's-front. As a color modifier, prow implies a ship's-front-and-figurehead quality, the visual register of Royal-Navy-and-Tall-Ship-Prow hand-carved ship's-front-and-figurehead prow-and-cutwater-and-bowsprit maritime-architecture surfaces under tall-ship-prow-and-figurehead maritime-headway light. Sits at the modifier-and-nautical end of the grid, parallel to bow and hull in usage.
From the Latin ruber — simply, red. The gemstone is a chromium-tinged corundum, harder than anything in nature except diamond, and so saturated that a fine Burmese pigeon's blood ruby at auction outpaces a comparable diamond by weight. The color borrows the gem's confidence: a clear, glassy red without the brown of garnet or the blue of crimson.
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.