Scarlet#FF4200, a warm vivid scarlet
Scarlet in RGB, HSL, OKLCH & more
Ready to ship: every line pastes straight into your codebase, and the whole file copies at once.
ART is Rhapsody's perceptual model. How ART works
Why is it called Scarlet?
Scarlet's meaning, origin, and pronunciation, with sources.
Anchor: A06 · one of the 72 anchor hues of ART
Origin: Old French, from Medieval Latin; the earlier chain is debated (possibly Persian, possibly a round-trip Latin word)
Meaning: Originally a luxury fabric, not a color
SKAR-lit · /ˈskɑːrlɪt/
Persian saqirlāt, a rich cloth (probably, though this step is genuinely debated) → Medieval Latin scarlatum → Old French escarlate, "top-quality cloth" → English scarlet. And the Persian word may itself be Latin sigillatus, "decorated with little seals," which would make scarlet a Latin word that traveled east and came home unrecognizable.
What's certain is stranger than what isn't. Scarlet wasn't originally a color at all. It entered English in the mid-1200s meaning a luxury fabric, often red but not necessarily. The best of that cloth was dyed with kermes, the insect red behind Crimson and Vermilion, and over time the dye's color took over the fabric's name. Scarlet is what happens when a color is so tied to quality that it swallows the word for quality itself.
etymonline s.v. scarlet; Klein/Partridge (survey). Etymological dictionaries + scholarly sources. Audio: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shades of Scarlet, lighter and darker
For hover states, washed backgrounds, and dark surfaces that still read as #FF4200. 13 steps, spaced evenly by eye, with the color itself sitting at its natural depth, scarlet-500.
Tints (light surfaces; dark text passes on every one)
Midtones (the color at full strength, for brand & accent work)
Shades (dark surfaces; light text passes on every one)
Most tools mix. Rhapsody measures.
Paste any color. The whole system comes back, contrast-checked before you see it.
The window on the right was generated from #FF4200, like this whole page.
Is Scarlet accessible? Contrast with white & black
Strong contrast makes your work readable by everyone, and meets the WCAG standard accessibility law points at. AA is the floor; AAA is the tier worth aiming for in body text. Black text on #FF4200 passes AA. For AAA, use its scale. Every strip below is one surface, and the marks are the steps that reach AAA on it.
Rows are text, columns are background · 60 of 210 pairings reach WCAG 2.2 AAA, shown here.
Ship the audit, not screenshots.
Run #FF4200 against the colors you actually ship, every pairing and any target, and export it: exact ratios, the AA tier, APCA, in one file.
The audit on the right was calibrated from #FF4200, like this whole page.
Scarlet in CMYK: one value for files, one per press
This color shifts further than a press run can hold, so expect a visible difference. The pairs below show where each standard lands.
In CMYK, #FF4200 is . That is the value design tools and file formats use when no press is involved.
On press (what each standard prints)
shifts ΔE00 15.9, 6.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 12.0, 4.8× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 4.3, 1.7× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 4.6, 1.9× the 2.5 a run varies by
shifts ΔE00 3.5, 1.4× the 2.5 a run varies by
Press values computed through the ICC characterization data each standard proofs against. Each CMYK above is the closest that standard can get.
No surprises at the printer.
Run any color through the major press standards: FOGRA51, GRACoL, Japan Color, FOGRA39. It's coming soon. Create a free account and you'll get a note the moment it's live.
The strip shows this page's tints and shades on screen, then through a standard GRACoL 2013 conversion.
Colors similar to Scarlet
Originally a luxury fabric, not a color
Here are other colors similar to Scarlet along with accessible text pairings and whether or not they're print-safe. Explore The Scarlets
| Orangered | Orangered | #FE420F | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Orange Red | Orange Red | #FF4500 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Red Orange | Red Orange | #FD3C06 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blood Orange | Blood Orange | #FE4B03 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Reddish Orange | Reddish Orange | #F8481C | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Orangey Red | Orangey Red | #FA4224 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| International Orange | International Orange | #FF4F00 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pomegranate | Pomegranate | #F34723 | black text · AA | ! within tolerance |
| Vermilion | Vermilion | #FF2600 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pumpkin | Pumpkin | #FF5600 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Orangish Red | Orangish Red | #F43605 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Flamingo | Flamingo | #F2552A | black text · AA | ! within tolerance |
| Sunset Orange | Sunset Orange | #FE4C40 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Vermillion | Vermillion | #F4320C | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bright Orange | Bright Orange | #FF5B00 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Outrageous Orange | Outrageous Orange | #FF6037 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Trinidad | Trinidad | #E64E03 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Fire Engine Red | Fire Engine Red | #FE0002 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Bright Red | Bright Red | #FF000D | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Tomato Red | Tomato Red | #EC2D01 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Tomato | Tomato | #FF6347 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Blaze Orange | Blaze Orange | #FF6600 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Cinnabar | Cinnabar | #E34234 | black text · AA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Sunset | Sunset | #FF6700 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Deep Orange | Deep Orange | #DC4D01 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Persimmon | Persimmon | #FF6B53 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Punch | Punch | #DC4333 | black text · AA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Burning Orange | Burning Orange | #FF7034 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Orange Pink | Orange Pink | #FF6F52 | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Pinkish Orange | Pinkish Orange | #FF724C | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Valencia | Valencia | #D84437 | black text · AA | ✓ prints exactly |
| Bittersweet | Bittersweet | #FE6F5E | black text · AAA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Grenadier | Grenadier | #D54600 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Rusty Orange | Rusty Orange | #CD5909 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
| Tenn | Tenn | #CD5700 | black text · AA | ✕ shifts on press |
Colors that go with Scarlet
The complementary color, straight across the wheel, is a cool brilliant blue #4F9BD2. Rhapsody's pick is the split complement, just to one side of it, a livelier pair.
The accent is for the moments that need attention, the harmony for the ones that need calm; the neutral carries the text and surfaces in between.
Take Scarlet with you
The work on this page doesn't stay here. Save a card and the color arrives in your file, your deck or your board already decided.
Your system is already built.
Rhapsody built it before you even asked: the scale, the neutrals, the utilities, every pairing calibrated.
This page's whole theme is built from one color. Palette does the same for yours: every step calibrated, every pairing checked, press included.
Every color on this page was calibrated, not mixed.
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