A vivid medium red, white text passes AA
What color is crimson?
The CSS named color crimson is #dc143c, or rgb(220 20 60): a vivid medium red in plain words. White text on it reaches 4.99:1, passing WCAG AA, and Recolor (recolor.page) can put it on a real page.
Last updated
| Format | Value |
|---|---|
| Keyword | crimson |
| Hex | #dc143c |
| RGB | rgb(220 20 60) |
| HSL | hsl(348 83% 47%) |
| OKLCH | oklch(57.1% 0.222 20.1) |
| Nearest Tailwind color | rose-600 #ec003f, 0.031 away in OKLab |
| White text | 4.99:1: AA passes, AAA fails, large text passes |
| Black text | 4.21:1: AA fails, AAA fails, large text passes |
About crimson
In OKLCH terms crimson has a lightness of 57.1%, a chroma of 0.222 and a hue of 20.1 degrees, a vivid medium red to the eye.
Its lightness is 47% in HSL and 57.1% in OKLCH, 10 points apart; only the second tracks how light it looks. No CSS keyword matches it; red (#ff0000) is the nearest, 0.077 away in OKLab, a clear step off.
With white text, crimson passes AA at 4.99:1. Black text, at 4.21:1, does not. Its neighbors in the hue-sorted list of names are indianred and firebrick.
The closest Tailwind 4.3.3 color is rose-600, 0.031 away in OKLab, so bg-rose-600 comes near; bg-[#dc143c] gives the color itself.
Tints and shades
- #ffdedd
- #fdbdbc
- #f89c9b
- #f1797c
- #e7525c
- #dc143c
- #ac0d2d
- #7f071f
- #540311
- #2d0106
- #0b0001
From light to dark: 5 toward white and 5 toward black, mixed in OKLCH a sixth of the way at a time with the hue kept. A step that would repeat its neighbor is left out.
A palette around it
- #dc143c
- #ffe3e2
- #805151
- #f69897
- #301f1d
Locked as the first of five swatches, crimson gets #ffe3e2, #805151, #f69897, #301f1d from Recolor's generator, a monochromatic palette, one hue in five lightnesses. The seed is its hex, so the palette stays the same. Open it in Recolor.
Using crimson
As a text color, crimson on a white page gives the same 4.99:1.
.notice {
background-color: crimson; /* #dc143c */
color: white; /* 4.99:1 */
}Common questions
Does white text pass WCAG AA on crimson?
Yes. White text measures 4.99:1 on crimson, above the 4.5:1 that WCAG AA asks of body text.
Can crimson be written in OKLCH?
Yes: oklch(57.1% 0.222 20.1), computed from #dc143c. A named color is an sRGB color, so its OKLCH value converts back to the same hex.
Is there a named color close to crimson?
No. The nearest, red (#ff0000), is 0.077 away in OKLab, a different color.