Varieties of the color red may differ in hue, colorfulness (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness), lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a red or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors are shown below.
In specific color systems
Red (RGB)
Red (RGB),
RGB red, or
electric red (as opposed to
pigment red, shown below) is the brightest possible red that can be reproduced on a
computer monitor. This color is an approximation of an orangish red
spectral color. It is one of the three
of light in the RGB color model, along with
green and
blue. The three additive primaries in the RGB color system are the three colors of light chosen such as to provide the maximum
gamut of colors that are capable of being represented on a computer or television set, at a reasonable expense of power. Portable devices such as mobile phones might have an even narrower gamut due to this
colorfulness–power tradeoff and their "red" may be less colorful and more orangish than the standard red of
sRGB.
This color is also the color called red in the X11 web colors, which were originally formulated in 1987. It is also called color wheel red. It is at precisely zero (360) degrees on the HSV color wheel, also known as the RGB color wheel (Image of RGB color wheel). Its complementary color is cyan.
Red (CMYK) (pigment red)
Pigment red is the color red that is achieved by mixing process (printer's)
magenta and process (printer's)
yellow in equal proportions. This is the color red that is shown in the diagram located at the bottom of the following website offering tintbooks for
CMYK printing:
Tintbooks - Get Accurate CMYK Color Results For Your Printing Projects.
The purpose of the CMYK color system is to provide the maximum possible gamut of colors capable of being reproduced in printing.
Psychedelic art made people used to brighter colors of red, and pigment colors or colored pencils called "true red" are produced by mixing pigment red with a tiny amount of white. The result approximates (with much less brightness than is possible on a computer screen) the electric red shown above.
Red (Crayola)
The color is defined as
red in
Crayola crayons.
Red was one of the original colors formulated by Crayola in 1903.
Red (Munsell)
The
Munsell color system is a
color space that specifies
Color based on three color dimensions:
hue, value (
lightness), and
Colorfulness (colorfulness), spaced uniformly (in terms of
human perception) in three dimensions in the Munsell
color solid. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five, non-arbitrary, equally spaced primary colors: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
The color of the sample is the most Colorfulness red in the sRGB gamut that falls in the hue of 5R (primary red) in the Munsell color space.
Red (NCS) (psychological primary red)
The color is defined as
red in the NCS or Natural Color System (NCS 1080-R). The Natural Color System is a color system based on the four
unique hues or psychological primary colors red, yellow, green, and blue. The NCS is based on the opponent process theory of vision.
The Natural Color System is widely used in Scandinavia.
Red (Pantone)
The color is defined as
red in
Pantone.
The source of this color is the Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX) color list, color No. 032M—Red.
Variations of red
Madder
The color
madder is named for a dye produced from plants of the genus
Rubia.
Brink pink
The color
brink pink was formulated by
Crayola in 1990.
Crimson
Crimson is a strong, bright, deep red color combined with some
blue or violet, resulting in a small degree of
purple. It is also the color between rose and red on the RGB color wheel and magenta and red on the RYB color wheel.
Pink
The
web color pink is a light tint of
red, but is often considered to be a basic
color term on its own.
Salmon pink
This color which represents the pinkish tone of salmon is called
salmon in
Crayola crayons.
This color was introduced by Crayola in 1949. See the List of Crayola crayon colors.
Cardinal red
Cardinal red, also called
cardinal, is a vivid red, which gets its name from the
worn by cardinals. The bird takes its name from the color.
Apple red
Apple red is the color of the peel of an
apple.
Zarqa
Zarqa is the hue between red and vermillion.
Ponceau
The color
poppy red is named after the
poppy flower.
Poppy red is a shade of pink-red.
Batorange
The color
batorange is a nuance of Orange Nectar Bat species,
Lonchophylla robusta. It is a dark red-orange, dark vermilion, rufous color.
Carmine
The color
carmine is a vivid
crimson. In its
carmine it mostly contains the red light with wavelengths longer than 600 nm,
i.e. it is close to the
visible spectrum red. This places it far beyond standard gamuts (both RGB and CMYK), and its given RGB value is a poor approximation only.
Spanish red
Spanish red, an iron oxide red also known as
torch red, is the color that is called
rojo (the Spanish word for "red") in the
Guía de coloraciones (
Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the
Hispanophone realm.
[Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guía de coloraciones (Gallego, Rosa; Sanz, Juan Carlos (2005). Guide to Colorations) Madrid: H. Blume. ][Gallego, Rose and Sanz, Juan Carlos "Diccionario Akal del color" (2001) Akal ]
Rusty red
Rusty red is a color formulated by
Crayola in 1990 as one of the colors in its Silver Swirls specialty crayon box of
.
Chocolate cosmos
Chocolate cosmos, or
red cosmos is the color of
Cosmos atrosanguineus species.
[Amamiya, K., & Iwashina, T. (2016). Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Flower Pigments in Chocolate Cosmos, Cosmos atrosanguineus, and its Hybrids. Natural Product Communications, 11(1), 77–78.]
The color is described as dark red, deep crimson, deeper burgundy, deep red chocolate, as dark hazelnut and velvety maroon.
Rosewood
The color
rosewood is named after
rosewood.
The first recorded use of rosewood as a color name in English was in 1892.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color Sample of rosewood Page 33 Plate 5 Color Sample J9]
Actual rosewood exhibits a wide range of colors.
Imperial red
Imperial red is a representation of the red color of the
Imperial Standard of Napoleon I.
The first recorded use of imperial red as a color name in English was in 1914.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 196; Color Sample of Imperial Red: Page 27 Plate 2 Color Sample L11]
Note: the RGB values for Pantone red and imperial red are identical.
Cordovan
Cordovan is a rich medium dark shade of red.
The first recorded use of cordovan as a color name in English was in 1925.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 193; Color Sample of Cordovan Page 39 Plate 8 Color Sample H8]
Fire engine red
Fire engine red is an intense, bright red commonly used on emergency vehicles; mostly on fire engines, other associated fire service vehicles, and
.
Rose vale
The first recorded use of
rose vale as a color name in English was in 1923.
[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color sample of rose vale p. 33 Plate 5 Color Sample K9]
Old rose
The color
old rose, also known as
ashes of rose, was a popular Victorian color, it is a dullish red. The first recorded use of
old rose as a color name in English was in 1892.
[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200 Color Sample: Page 31 Plate 4 Color Sample I2]
Bittersweet shimmer
Bittersweet shimmer is one of the colors in the special set of metallic Crayola crayons called Metallic FX, the colors of which were formulated by Crayola in 2001.
Although this is supposed to be a metallic color, there is no mechanism for displaying metallic colors on a computer.
Light red
The color
light red, though very similar to
pink, is a shade of
red that is roughly 50% lighter than
red.
Cymbidium red
The color
cymbidium red is an nuance of red
Cymbidium flower specie. Cymbidium red is a vivid red, look like jasper color.
Light coral
The web color
light coral is a pinkish-light orange color. It is also a HTML/CSS color name and a X11 color name.
Garnet
The color
garnet can be considered a dark tone of red, with some slight purple tints.
This color represents the hue of an average garnet gemstone, though garnets can range in color from orange to (very rarely) green.
Rose ebony
The first recorded use of
rose ebony as a color name in English was in 1924.
[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color Sample of rose Ebony Page 39 Plate 8 Color Sample E6]
Chili red
Chili red is the color of red
. It is the shade of red used in the flags of Chile and South Africa. On the flag of South Africa, it is defined as Pantone 179.
National flag | South African Government
Venetian red
Venetian red is a light and warm (somewhat unsaturated) pigment that is a darker shade of red. The composition of Venetian red changed over time. Originally it consisted of natural ferric oxide (Fe
2O
3, partially hydrated) obtained from the red hematite. Modern versions are frequently made with synthetic red iron oxide produced via calcination of green vitriol mixed with white chalk. The pigment contains up to 50% of the ferric oxide.
Historically, Venetian red was a red earth color often used in Italian Renaissance paintings.
Vermilion
Vermilion (sometimes spelled
vermillion) is both a brilliant red or scarlet pigment, originally made from the powdered mineral cinnabar (). It was widely used in the art and decoration of Ancient Rome, in the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, in the paintings of the
Renaissance, as
sindoor, an Indian cosmetic powder, and in the art and lacquerware of China.
Misty rose
The
web color misty rose is written as
mistyrose in HTML code for computer display.
[ CSS3 Color Module. Retrieved 15 February 2007.]
The color name misty rose first came into use in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the X11 colors, which in the early 1990s became known as the X11 web colors.
Turkey red
Turkey red is a color that was widely used to dye cotton in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was made using the root of the
Rubia plant, through a long and laborious process. It originated in India or Turkey, and was brought to Europe in the 1740s. In France, it was known as
rouge d'Andrinople.
Salmon
The
web color salmon represents the color of the flesh of an average
salmon. However, actual salmon flesh can range in hue from a light pinkish-orange to a bright red (as is the case with
sockeye salmon).
Coral pink
The color
coral pink is a
color.
[
]
The first recorded use of coral pink as a color name in English was in 1892.[; color sample of coral pink: page 27, plate 2, color sample F9.] Late in 2016, the color sample was renamed Coral Red by Pantone, as the RGB, Hex and HTML color table showed the same color as being reddish, standing against popular belief of pinkish.
Still today, some people call Coral Red as Coral Pink due to this old attribution.
The complementary color of coral pink is teal.
Cantaloupe melon
The color cantaloupe melon is a representation of the color of the interior flesh of a cantaloupe, the most commonly consumed melon.
The first recorded use of melon as a color name in English was in 1892.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 199; Color Sample of Melon: Page 27 Plate 2 Color Sample D10]
In 1958, melon was formulated as one of the Crayola colors.
Barn red
The color barn red is one of the colors on one of the milk paint color lists, paint colors formulated to reproduce the colors historically used on the American frontier and made, like those paints were, with milk. This color is mixed with various amounts of white paint to create any desired shade of the color barn red.
Blood red
The color of blood red ranges from crimson to a dark brown-red and may have a slightly orange hue. In the RGB color spectrum, it often consists only of the color red, with no green or blue component; in the CMYK color model blood red has no cyan, and consists only of magenta and yellow with a small amount of black. It is frequently darker than both maroon and dark red.
In China, according to The Language of Color in China,
Tea rose
The color tea rose is the tint of the color that is used in interior design. This color is popular in interior design for painting bedrooms, especially among women.
There is a different color sometimes called tea rose, which is the color of an orange rose called a tea rose.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 – McGraw-Hill – Discussion of color tea rose, Page 183] This other color is technically Congo pink.
The first recorded use of tea rose as a color name in English was in 1884.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 183]
Cinnabar
The color cinnabar derives from the Cinnabar. It is a slightly orange shade of red, with variations ranging from bright scarlet to brick red.
Dark red
This is the web color dark red.
Fire brick
This is the web color fire brick.
Indian red
The name Indian red derives from the red laterite soil found in India, which is composed of naturally occurring . The first recorded use of "Indian red" as a color term in English was in 1792.[Mish, Frederic C., Editor in Chief Webster's Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.:1994 – Merriam-Webster Page 592]
Lust
Lust is a rich shade of red.
This color is not mentioned in the 1930 book A Dictionary of Color by Maerz and Paul but is found on the 1955 ISCC-NBS color list.
Maroon (HTML/CSS)
This is the web color called maroon in HTML/CSS. It only consists of red in RGB and no cyan in CMYK.
Redwood
The color redwood is a representation of color of the wood of the redwood tree ( Sequoia sempervirens).
The first recorded use of redwood as a color name in English was in 1917.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color Sample of Redwood: Page 35 Plate 6 Color Sample K11]
The source of this color is the Pantone Textile Paper eXtended (TPX) color list, color #18-1443—Redwood.
Scarlet
Scarlet is a bright red with a slightly orange tinge. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, scarlet and other bright shades of red are the colors most associated with courage, force, passion, heat, and joy.[Eva Heller (2009), Psychologie de la couleur; effets et symboliques, pp. 42–49] In the Roman Catholic Church, scarlet is the color worn by cardinals, and is associated with the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs, and with sacrifice.
Tomato
The web color tomato is a medium -orange color that approximates the color of common supermarket tomatoes. Many vine-ripened tomatoes are a bit redder. The color of tomato soup is slightly less saturated.
The first recorded use of tomato as a color name in English was in 1891.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 205; Color Sample of Tomato: Page 29 Plate 3 Color Sample I12]
When the X11 color names were invented in 1987, the color tomato was formulated as one of them.
Jasper
The color jasper is named for red jasper, the most commonly known form of jasper; however, as with many gemstones, jasper can be found in many colors, from yellow to brown and even green. The color was formulated by Crayola in 1994 as part of their Gem Tones crayon set.
Rosy brown
The name for the web color rosy brown first came into use in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the X11 colors, which in the early 1990s became known as the X11 web colors.
Rose taupe
The first recorded use of rose taupe as a color name in English was in 1924.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 203; Color Sample of rose Taupe Page 55 Plate 16 Color Sample A4]
Amaranth
Amaranth is a pinkish-red color, which gets its name from the color of a red amaranth flower.
Fluorescent red
Fluorescent red is a light brilliant red color.
Cunard red
When the British shipping line Cunard Line was launched, a red funnel colour was selected to identify the company's ships. However, the heat from the funnels caused the paint to peel. To stop this, the red paint was thickened and mixed with buttermilk. When the heat of the funnel interacted with the buttermilk within the mixture, however, the red paint changed in colour and became a distinctive red-orange. This shade of red became known as Cunard Red.
See also
-
Lists of colors
-
Iron oxide red
-
Ruby (color)
Sources
