Vermilion
Also known as: Vermillion
A brilliant orange-red historically produced from the mineral cinnabar.
At a glance
- Hue family
- red
- Warmth
- warm
- Tone depth
- medium
- Saturation
- Vivid
Similar to
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 (5.1:1) than white (4.1:1).
See this colour in the real world
Colours in photographs vary with lighting, material, camera processing and screen calibration — the named colours below are visual approximations, not exact measurements.
Unlike the sky's or a butterfly wing's structural colour, poppy red comes from anthocyanin pigment in the petals — a genuinely different mechanism producing a superficially similar bright, saturated colour.
Poppy petals are thin and translucent, so their apparent red shifts noticeably with backlighting; this photograph was taken in flat, even daylight."Close up red wild poppy flowers" by Dusan Bicanski, public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsLicence details
- Source:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Creator:
- Dusan Bicanski
- Licence:
- Released into the public domain by the copyright holder, free for any use.
- Reviewed:
- 2026-07-24
Cinnabar (mercury sulfide) is the natural mineral historically ground to produce vermilion pigment — a real, documented toxicity that any historical vermilion object should be handled with care around.
The grey/tan host rock fills most of this close-up photograph, so an automated whole-frame scan would be dominated by rock rather than the cinnabar itself — the palette above was hand-picked from the visible red mineral."Cinnabar from Czech Republic" by Jan Helebrant, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsLicence details
- Source:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Creator:
- Jan Helebrant
- Licence:
- CC BY-SA 2.0 — free to share and adapt commercially, provided the work is attributed and any adaptation is shared under the same licence.
- Reviewed:
- 2026-07-25
Colour stories
Why vermilion carries a health warning today
Vermilion was historically produced by grinding cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral — genuinely useful as a vivid, stable red, but also genuinely toxic, and historical painters and decorators who worked with it had far less protection than modern safety standards would require.
In practice: Any historical object containing vermilion (a painting, a piece of lacquerware) should be handled with the same care a museum conservator would use — this is a real, documented hazard, not a historical exaggeration.
Used in historical palettes
Vermilion appears in the following curated historical/cultural palettes.
Medieval illuminated manuscript palette
Illuminated religious manuscripts
12th to 15th century · Europe
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.
Renaissance ultramarine and vermilion
Religious and portrait painting
14th to 16th century · Italy and Northern Europe
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.
Pairings
Subtle, bold, analogous, complementary and neutral options — established design convention, not a guarantee of visual success in every context.
Complementary
Opposite hues (180° apart) for maximum hue contrast.
No curated profile yet
Analogous
Neighbouring hues on the colour wheel for a low-contrast, harmonious feel.
Analogous
Neighbouring hues on the colour wheel for a low-contrast, harmonious feel.
Triadic
Three hues evenly spaced around the colour wheel for balanced contrast.
Triadic
Three hues evenly spaced around the colour wheel for balanced contrast.
Split-complementary
The two hues bracketing the complement, for contrast with less tension.
Split-complementary
The two hues bracketing the complement, for contrast with less tension.
Tetradic
Four hues at 90° steps around the colour wheel for a rich, varied palette.
Tetradic
Four hues at 90° steps around the colour wheel for a rich, varied palette.
No curated profile yet
Tetradic
Four hues at 90° steps around the colour wheel for a rich, varied palette.
Monochromatic
Same hue at different lightness levels, for a cohesive tonal palette.
Monochromatic
Same hue at different lightness levels, for a cohesive tonal palette.
Monochromatic
Same hue at different lightness levels, for a cohesive tonal palette.
Monochromatic
Same hue at different lightness levels, for a cohesive tonal palette.
For an accessible, low-contrast-risk pairing, monochromatic (same-hue) combinations are usually the safest starting point — see the harmonies above.
Uses & contexts
Continue exploring
Go deeperColour in the ancient worldAncient Egypt, Greece and Rome each developed distinctive relationships with colour — Egypt used mineral-based pigments including one of the earliest synthetic pigments ever made, while Rome's fondness for vivid, expensive colour is well documented in surviving wall paintings and historical accounts of dyed cloth.HistoryGo deeperToxic and dangerous historical pigmentsSeveral historically important, visually striking pigments — lead white, vermilion/cinnabar and arsenic-based greens among the best documented — carried real health hazards that were not fully understood or acted on for a long time, offering a genuine cautionary counterpoint to any romanticised view of historical colour.HistoryGo deeperMedieval illuminated manuscript paletteIlluminated religious manuscriptsHistorical palette
Meaning & story
History
- Historically used in East Asian lacquerware and seal ink, and by the Romans as a prized (and toxic) pigment.
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.
Pigment & family history
Terminology
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.
Lighter
Lightness increased
Darker
Lightness decreased
Warmer & Greener & Yellower
Hue rotated toward warm (red/orange) From this starting colour, moving warmer and greener and yellower converges on the same calculated result.
Cooler & Bluer
Hue rotated toward cool (blue) From this starting colour, moving cooler and bluer converges on the same calculated result.
Redder
Hue rotated toward red
More muted
Saturation softened
More saturated
Saturation increased
Technical details
Technical values
CMYK is an approximate device conversion, not a calibrated print value — see methodology.
Convert this colour to another format →
Common pigment-history reference value for the named colour.
Characteristics
- Hue family
- red
- Undertone
- warm
- Tone depth
- medium
- Pastel
- No
- Earth tone
- No
- Jewel tone
- Yes
- Vivid
- Yes
- Greyness
- 23%
- Visual weight
- 58/100
Accessibility
vs. white text
4.12:1 — fails
vs. black text
5.10:1 — AA
Confidence: medium · Qualification: identity_only, technically_qualified, curated_profile_eligible, search_index_eligible, comparison_eligible
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