Red

A pure, fully saturated primary red.

At a glance

Hue family: red
Warmth: warm
Tone depth: medium
Saturation: Vivid

Similar to

scarlet vermilion cadmium-red

Find pairings Wear this colour Use in interiors Adjust it Compare it See it in Nature Explore history & meaning

Quick intelligence summary

Feels like: warm, medium, vivid
Works well with: See the pairings section below for calculated harmony options.
Common uses: See uses & contexts below for interiors, fashion and practical guidance.
Accessibility snapshot: Pairs better with black text (5.3:1) than white (4.0:1).

See it in context

No reviewed photograph is linked to this exact shade yet. A photograph would only ever approximate this HEX value — lighting, camera processing and display calibration all affect the colours a photo shows. In the meantime, these related pages give real context for where this colour family shows up.

In nature: Colours in flowers In nature: Colours in animals In nature: Colours in birds In nature: Warning colours in nature In nature: Pigments in nature Culture: Lucky colours around the world Culture: Wedding colours across traditions Culture: Colour in religious vestments and ritual Culture: Colour in protest and political movements Culture: Colour in festivals and celebrations History: The history of red

Used in outfit palettes

Red appears in the following curated Fashion outfit palettes.

Bold red and black statement

Confident, dramatic, unmistakably deliberate.

Saturated red can shift toward orange under warm indoor lighting — check the exact shade under the lighting it'll actually be worn in.

Red in a glossy fabric reads noticeably brighter than the same red in matte cotton — a real property of the fabric's finish, not a colour-matching error.

Used in historical palettes

Red appears in the following curated historical/cultural palettes.

Roman fresco colours

Wall painting in Roman villas and public buildings

1st century BCE to 1st century CE · Roman Italy

These HEX values are a modern digital approximation for comparison — they cannot exactly reproduce a historical physical pigment, dye or dyed cloth, whose appearance also varied by batch, ageing and the light it was viewed in.

Heraldic colour palette

European heraldry (coats of arms)

12th century onward · Europe

Chinese wedding palette

Traditional Chinese wedding dress and decoration

Traditional, still in wide use today · China and Chinese diaspora communities

Pairings

Subtle, bold, analogous, complementary and neutral options — established design convention, not a guarantee of visual success in every context.

For an accessible, low-contrast-risk pairing, monochromatic (same-hue) combinations are usually the safest starting point — see the harmonies above.

Uses & contexts

Nature Culture & history Practical questions Lighting guidance Finish & texture guidance

Continue exploring

Go deeperA brief history of colourThe history of colour is largely a history of what could be reliably produced and afforded: early pigments came from earth and minerals, expensive dyes marked status for millennia, and 19th-century synthetic chemistry rapidly made colour cheap, stable and universally available for the first time.History Go deeperRoman fresco coloursWall painting in Roman villas and public buildingsHistorical palette

Meaning & story

Mood

Often associated with energy, urgency and passion.

Culture

In Chinese culture, red is traditionally associated with luck, prosperity and celebration.

True of the red family generally

Inherited from the red hue family, not specifically documented about this exact shade — see methodology.

Red is traditionally associated with luck, prosperity and celebration in Chinese culture, and is prominently used at weddings and during Lunar New Year.
Red is widely associated with love, passion and romance in many Western contexts.
Red-green colour pairings can be difficult to distinguish for people with the most common forms of colour vision deficiency (protanopia and deuteranopia) — avoid relying on red vs. green alone to convey status or meaning.
Red is commonly used as a warning or stop signal in traffic-control and safety systems in many countries.

Culture & history topics

Lucky colours around the world Wedding colours across traditions Colour in religious vestments and ritual Colour in protest and political movements Colour in festivals and celebrations

Pigment & family history

The history of red

Used in weddings, mourning, religion, politics or festivals

Each of these is a separately scoped, separately sourced tradition — shown here because this colour appears in it, not because they share one meaning.

Red and gold in Chinese weddings Red and gold in Hindu weddings in India White in traditional Japanese Shinto weddings Red and blue in traditional Korean wedding attire Roman Catholic liturgical colours Blue, white and red in the French Revolution Red in labour and socialist movements Red and gold at Lunar New Year Gold, red and marigold at Diwali

Moods

Energetic

Terminology

Hue Undertone Vivid colour Warm colour

Lighter, darker & directional variants

Calculated directional adjustments. Some directions converge on the same result from this starting colour — shown as one merged card with an explanation, not repeated duplicates. Generated shades link to a curated profile only when one is close enough.

In nature

Colours in flowers Colours in animals Colours in birds Warning colours in nature Pigments in nature

Technical details

Technical values

CMYK is an approximate device conversion, not a calibrated print value — see methodology.

Convert this colour to another format →

CSS/web-standard named colour value.

Characteristics

Hue family: red
Undertone: warm
Tone depth: medium
Pastel: No
Earth tone: No
Jewel tone: Yes
Vivid: Yes
Greyness: 0%
Visual weight: 70/100

Accessibility

vs. white text

4.00:1 — fails

vs. black text

5.25:1 — AA

Confidence: medium · Qualification: identity_only, technically_qualified, curated_profile_eligible, search_index_eligible, comparison_eligible

Spotted something wrong? Suggest a correction.