Varieties of the color

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation, intensity, or colorfulness) or

lightness Lightness is a visual perception of the luminance (L) of an object. It is often judged relative to a similarly lit object. In colorimetry and color appearance models, lightness is a prediction of how an illuminated color will appear to a stan ...

(or value, tone, or

brightness Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. The perception is not linear to luminance, ...

), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called

tints and shades In color theory, a tint is a mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, while a shade is a mixture with black, which increases darkness. Both processes affect the resulting color mixture's relative saturation. A tone is produced ...

, a tint being a red or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is 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 A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls. The di ...

. This color is an approximation of an orangish red

spectral color A spectral color is a color that is evoked by ''monochromatic light'', i.e. either a single wavelength of light in the visible spectrum, or by a relatively narrow band of wavelengths (e.g. lasers). Every wavelength of visible light is percei ...

. It is one of the three primary colors of light in the

RGB color model The RGB color model is an additive color model in which the red, green and blue primary colors of light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additiv ...

, along with

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

. The three additive primaries in the RGB color system are the three colors of light chosen such as to provide the maximum

gamut In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain ''complete subset'' of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circ ...

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 purity–power tradeoff and their "red" may be less colorful and more orangish than the standard red of

sRGB sRGB is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ( ...

. 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 Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two co ...

cyan Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK color ...

Red (CMYK) (pigment red)

''Pigment red'' is the color red that is achieved by mixing process (printer's) magenta and process (printer's)

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

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 The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

printing

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 A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

colors or colored pencils called "true red" are produced by mixing pigment red with a tiny amount of

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

. 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 color is defined as ''red'' in the Munsell color system (Munsell 5R). The Munsell color system is a

color space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represent ...

that specifies

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

s based on three color dimensions: hue, value (

), and chroma (color purity), spaced uniformly in three dimensions in the elongated oval at an angle shaped Munsell color solid according to the

logarithmic scale A logarithmic scale (or log scale) is a way of displaying numerical data over a very wide range of values in a compact way—typically the largest numbers in the data are hundreds or even thousands of times larger than the smallest numbers. Such a ...

which governs

human perception Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous system ...

. In order for all the colors to be spaced uniformly, it was found necessary to use a color wheel with five primary colors—red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The Munsell colors displayed are only approximate as they have been adjusted to fit into the sRGB

Red (NCS) (psychological primary red)

The color is defined as ''red'' in the NCS or

Natural Color System The Natural Color System (NCS) is a proprietary perceptual color model. It is based on the color opponency hypothesis of color vision, first proposed by German physiologist Ewald Hering. The current version of the NCS was developed by the Sw ...

(NCS 1080-R). The Natural Color System is a color system based on the four

unique hues Unique hue is a term used in certain theories of color vision, which implies that human perception distinguishes between "unique" (psychologically primary) and composite (mixed) hues. A unique hue is defined as a color which an observer perceive ...

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 Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...

. 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 ''Rubia'' is the type genus of the Rubiaceae family of flowering plants, which also contains coffee. It contains around 80 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and subshrubs native to the Old World. The genus and its best-known spe ...

''.

Brink pink

The color brink pink was formulated by Crayola in 1990.

Crimson

Crimson is a strong, bright, deep red color combined with some

violet Violet may refer to: Common meanings * Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue * One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly: ** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants Places United States * Viol ...

, resulting in a small degree of

purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...

. 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

, but is often considered to be a basic

color term A color term (or color name) is a word or phrase that refers to a specific color. The color term may refer to human perception of that color (which is affected by visual context) which is usually defined according to the Munsell color system, or t ...

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 Since the introduction of Crayola drawing crayons by Binney & Smith in 1903, more than 200 distinctive colors have been produced in a wide variety of assortments. The table below represents all of the colors found in regular Crayola assortment ...

Cardinal red

Cardinal red, also called ''cardinal'', is a vivid red, which gets its name from the

cassock The cassock or soutane is a Christian clerical clothing coat used by the clergy and male religious of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, in addition to some clergy in certain Protestant denomi ...

s worn by

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

s. The family of birds takes its name from the color.

Poppy red

The color poppy red is named after the poppy flower. Poppy red is a shade of pink-red. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian officer and surgeon in World War I, wrote possibly history's most famous wartime poems, called " In Flanders Fields", written in 1915. It helped the poppy ('' Papaver rhoeas'') become a symbol of remembrance for soldiers who have died during the conflict and later conflicts.

Carmine

The color carmine is a vivid

crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colo ...

In its pigment form it mostly contains the red light with wavelengths longer than 600 nm, ''i.e.'' it is close to the extreme spectral 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, 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 Hispanophone and Hispanic refers to anything relating to the Spanish language (the Hispanosphere). In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The Hispanic culture is th ...

realm.

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 metallic colors.

Chocolate cosmos

Chocolate cosmos, or ''red cosmos'' is the color of ''Cosmos atrosanguineus'' species. The color is described as dark red, deep

, deeper

burgundy Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...

, deep red chocolate, as dark

hazelnut The hazelnut is the fruit of the hazel tree and therefore includes any of the nuts deriving from species of the genus ''Corylus'', especially the nuts of the species ''Corylus avellana''. They are also known as cobnuts or filberts according t ...

and velvety

maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...

Rosewood

The color rosewood is named after rosewood. The first recorded use of ''rosewood'' as a color name in English was in 1892. Actual rosewood exhibits a wide range of colors.

Imperial red

''See also

Imperial blue Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by clothiers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of whom won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Brightness The ''Oxford En ...

'' 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. 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.

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 ambulances.

Rose vale

The first recorded use of rose vale as a color name in English was in 1923.

Old rose

The color old rose, also known as ashes of rose, was a popular Victorian color. The first recorded use of ''old rose'' as a color name in English was in 1892.

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''.

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 In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It was traditionally shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in ''&l ...

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. Garnet is the birthstone for those born in January.

Rose ebony

The first recorded use of rose ebony as a color name in English was in 1924.

Chili red

Chili red is the color of red chili peppers. It is the shade of red used in the flags of Chile and South Africa.

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 manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

s 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. The color name ''misty rose'' first came into use in 1987, when this color was formulated as one of the

X11 colors In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It was traditionally shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in ''<X ...

, 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 The sockeye salmon (''Oncorhynchus nerka''), also called red salmon, kokanee salmon, blueback salmon, or simply sockeye, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it. This species is a P ...

Coral pink

The color coral pink is a pinkish color. The first recorded use of ''coral pink'' as a color name in English was in 1892. 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

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. 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 The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...

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'', dark blood red is sometimes referred to as "period (i.e.,

menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hor ...

) red".

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''. This other color is technically Congo pink. The first recorded use of ''tea rose'' as a color name in English was in 1884.

Cinnabar

The color cinnabar derives from the mineral of the same name. It is a slightly orange shade of red, with variations ranging from bright

scarlet Scarlet may refer to: * Scarlet (cloth), a type of woollen cloth common in medieval England * Scarlet (color), a bright tone of red that is slightly toward orange, named after the cloth * Scarlet (dye), the dye used to give the cloth its color * ...

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 Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

soil found in India, which is composed of naturally occurring

iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of whic ...

s. The first recorded use of "Indian red" as a color term in English was in 1792.

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.

Redwood

The color redwood is a representation of color of the wood of the

redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...

tree (''Sequoia sempervirens''). The first recorded use of ''redwood'' as a color name in English was in 1917. 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. 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

dish-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. 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

, 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

Fluorescent red

Fluorescent red is a light brilliant red color.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red, shades of