Dark Red Color Codes

Dark Red is a dark, vivid red with the hex code #8B0000, RGB values of 139, 0, 0 and an HSL value of hsl(0, 100%, 27%).

HEX	#8B0000
RGB	139, 0, 0
HSL	hsl(0, 100%, 27%)
HSV	0°, 100%, 55%
CMYK	0%, 100%, 100%, 45%
LAB	28.09, 51.00, 41.29
CIELCHuv	28.09, 94.46, 12.17°

Nearest Pantone: PMS 484 C ΔE 12.1 · approximate
Nearest CSS name: darkred ΔE 0.0

Source CSS Color Module Level 4 keyword 'DarkRed'

Dark Red Color Hex Code

The Dark Red color hex code is #8B0000. Those six digits are three pairs, 8B for red, 00 for green and 00 for blue, which is the same triplet a browser reads from the CSS value below.

#8B0000

Dark Red Color RGB Code

The Dark Red RGB code is rgb(139, 0, 0). Red carries the most light at 139 of 255, which is what puts this color where it sits on the wheel.

rgb(139, 0, 0)

Dark Red Color HSV Code

The Dark Red HSV code is 0°, 100%, 55%. Read it as a hue of 0 degrees, 100% saturation and 55% value, which is the form most color pickers use because moving one number changes one thing.

0°, 100%, 55%

Dark Red Color CIELChuv Code

The Dark Red CIELCHuv code is 28.09, 94.46, 12.17°. Unlike hex or RGB this one is perceptual: lightness 28 means dark to the eye rather than to the screen, and chroma 94 is how far it sits from grey.

28.09, 94.46, 12.17°

Tonal scale

What are Dark Red Color Palettes?

A shade mixes toward black, a tint toward white, a tone toward grey. Every step keeps the hue and is copy-ready.

Shades, toward black

Tints, toward white

Tones, toward grey

Open in the shades & tints generator →

Palettes

What are Dark Red Color Palette Codes?

Each of these is a hue rotation from #8B0000. They are generated, not curated, so they are exact.

Complementary

Directly opposite sits #008B8B, a mid-tone, vivid teal. No other pairing separates two hues further, so this is the one to reach for when a single element has to win attention. Both are saturated, so give the complement much less area than the base or the two will fight.

Analogous

#8B0046 and #8B4500 sit 30 degrees either side. All three share most of their hue, so the set reads as one family instead of three separate decisions. Good for backgrounds and for state variations that should not announce themselves.

Triadic

#008B00 and #00008B complete an even 120 degree split. Three fully independent hues, so one has to lead: keep this base dominant and let the other two appear in small quantities.

Split-complementary

Instead of the direct complement, this takes the two hues either side of it: #008B46 and #00458B. Almost the same contrast, without the edge shimmer a true complementary pair produces at high saturation.

Tetradic

Two complementary pairs forming a rectangle: this base with #008B8B, and #468B00 with #45008B. The richest of the five and the hardest to balance, so treat this base as the lead and hold the other three well back.

See these on the color wheel →

Accessibility

Measured against white and against black, with a separate verdict for each element type. Small text, large text and UI components have different thresholds, so one pass or fail for the whole color would be wrong roughly a third of the time.

White background

10.01:1

10.01

contrast ratio on white background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Passes	Passes
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Passes	Passes
UI component needs 3:1	Passes	n/a

Black background

2.10:1

2.10

contrast ratio on black background

Element	AA	AAA
Small text needs 4.5:1 / 7:1	Fails	Fails
Large text needs 3:1 / 4.5:1	Fails	Fails
UI component needs 3:1	Fails	n/a

Dark Red clears WCAG AA against white at 10.01:1, so it is safe for body copy as well as headings. Text placed on it should be white, which gives 10.01:1. It is a highly saturated color, so it will dominate anything it sits beside. Give it space rather than surrounding it with other strong colors.

Check Dark Red against another color →

Color vision

How Dark Red looks with color blindness

Around 300 million people see color differently from the way it is specified. Each card shows the actual color beside how it appears, and how common that form of vision is.

Protanopia

About 1% of men

actual

#6B6A00

Dark Red changes substantially here. ΔE 64.2

No working red cones. Reds darken sharply and drift toward the same muddy olive as green.

Deuteranopia

About 1% of men

actual

#707600

Dark Red changes substantially here. ΔE 69.8

No working green cones. With the milder deuteranomaly at nearer 6% of men, this is by far the most common form, and the one worth designing around.

Tritanopia

About 1 in 10,000

actual

#880000

Dark Red holds up almost unchanged here. ΔE 1.4

No working blue cones. Blues shift toward green and yellows toward pink. Rare, and unlike the others it is not sex-linked, so it affects men and women equally.

Achromatopsia

About 1 in 30,000

actual

#424242

Dark Red changes substantially here. ΔE 65.6

No color vision at all. Also a fair proxy for how the color survives a greyscale print or a failing screen.

To a deuteranope, the most common form, Dark Red reads as #707600. That is a shift of ΔE 69.8, so it is a different color to roughly one man in sixteen. It sits in the red end of the spectrum, which is exactly where red-green deficiency does its damage. Never pair it with a green of similar lightness to signal a difference in meaning: to a large minority the two become one color. The widest shift is under deuteranopia, at ΔE 69.8. The rule this leads to needs no simulator: never let color be the only thing carrying a message. Add a label, an icon, or a clear difference in lightness, and the problem disappears for everyone.

Simulate a whole palette →

Snippets

Using Dark Red in code

:root {
  --dark-red: #8B0000;
}

.example {
  color: var(--dark-red);
}

// tailwind.config.js
theme: {
  extend: {
    colors: {
      'dark-red': '#8B0000',
    },
  },
}

// SwiftUI takes 0–1 components, not 0–255.
let darkRed = Color(
    red: 0.545,
    green: 0.000,
    blue: 0.000
)

<!-- res/values/colors.xml -->
<color name="dark_red">#8B0000</color>

// Flutter wants ARGB: FF for full opacity, then the hex.
const darkRed = Color(0xFF8B0000);

Meaning

What is the Meaning of Dark Red Color?

Dark Red reads as urgency, appetite and alarm. It is saturated enough to dominate anything it sits beside, and at 100% saturation with a perceptual lightness of 28 it behaves as a warm color, which is the practical reason it turns up where it does.

What are Other Names of Dark Red Color?

In CSS you can write DarkRed instead of the hex and get the same color: the two are 0.0 apart, which no eye resolves. For print the nearest Pantone is PMS 484 C at #9B301C. The name Dark Red comes from the community color-name index rather than a standards body, so you will meet it under other names elsewhere.

How is Dark Red Color Made?

On a screen Dark Red is made by additive light: 139 red, 0 green and 0 blue out of 255, with red leading and 0 as the floor. In print it is subtractive instead, mixed as 0%, 100%, 100%, 45%. Starting from the pure hue at 0 degrees, Dark Red is a shade, so it is that hue with black added.