Steadfast Rouge
Steadfast Rouge (#D81112) is a true red with a neon character. It sits at the high-saturation edge of its family. Use it sparingly, as signage, accent, or highlight against darker surfaces. Its HSL profile (360°, 85%, 46%) 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 cyan. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English stede-fæst, fixed in place — sharing root with German stetig. As a color modifier, steadfast implies a saturated-and-unwavering quality where the hue maintains its visual character without modulation. Sits at the bold-and-firm end of the grid, parallel to unwavering and firm in usage.
French for red, but in English borrowed specifically as the cosmetic — the powdered or creamed cheek color of eighteenth-century European court fashion, originally derived from carmine. The color sits between rose and coral, warm enough to suggest blood under skin, cool enough to read as paint rather than blush. The Communist rouge of revolutionary France carries the same word but a different etymology of the pigment.
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.