#AE0C19

sRGB: 174 / 12 / 25

#AE0C19 belongs to the red family. Its hex code tells a screen to mix 174 red, 12 green and 25 blue on a scale of 0 to 255. On the HSL wheel, hue is a position around a circle: 355.2° lands in the red region. Its 87.1% saturation makes it strong in color at this lightness. HSL lightness is 36.5% on a scale from black (0%) to white (100%). Of black and white lettering, white has the clearer light-to-dark separation on this background (7.33:1), which helps the shapes of letters stand out.

Color conversions

sRGB (8-bit): 174, 12, 25
HSL: 355.19°, 87.10%, 36.47%
HSV / HSB: 355.19°, 93.10%, 68.24%
CMYK (approx.): 0.00%, 93.10%, 85.63%, 31.76%
CIE XYZ (D65, Y = 100 for white): 17.762, 9.333, 1.786
CIELAB (D65, 2° observer): 36.619, 59.059, 39.908
WCAG relative luminance: 0.09332
24-bit decimal: 11406361

CMYK uses a profile-free approximation. Printed output depends on the press, ink and paper. Lab uses a D65 white point.

Text contrast

Contrast tells you how clearly lettering separates from #AE0C19 in light and dark. The ratio compares relative luminance, a measure of light weighted for human vision. Identical colors give 1:1 and black against white gives 21:1. A ratio of 2.99:1 falls just below the 3:1 AA minimum for large text. Body text needs at least 4.5:1 because its finer strokes are harder to distinguish.

Black text: 2.87:1

Normal text: Fail
Large text: Fail

White text: 7.33:1

Normal text: AAA
Large text: AAA

AA and AAA are WCAG accessibility levels. AAA sets a higher bar: 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text. Large text begins at 18 pt regular or 14 pt bold. Ratings use the unrounded ratio.

Reference: WCAG text contrast guidance

Palettes & scales

Harmonies rotate the hue. Scales mix the starting color with white, black or middle gray in 20% steps in encoded sRGB.

Complementary

#0CAEA1 sits half a turn (180°) from #AE0C19 on the HSL wheel. Keeping saturation and lightness steady while crossing to the opposite hue gives you a contrasting accent. Check text contrast separately before using the pair for lettering.

#AE0C19 #0CAEA1

Analogous

#AE0C6A and #AE500C sit 30° to either side of #AE0C19. The three hues are neighbors on the wheel, so you can change the color of a border or highlight while keeping it close to the original.

#AE0C6A #AE0C19 #AE500C

Triadic

#AE0C19, #19AE0C and #0C19AE are spaced 120° apart, forming a triangle on the wheel. Try one for the main color and the other two for accents.

#AE0C19 #19AE0C #0C19AE

Split complementary

Start at #AE0C19 and look across the wheel. #0CAE50 and #0C6AAE sit 30° to either side of its exact opposite, giving you two different accent choices.

#AE0C19 #0CAE50 #0C6AAE

Square

Starting with #AE0C19, each quarter turn (90°) takes you to the next hue: #6AAE0C, #0CAEA1, then #500CAE. Across the square, #AE0C19 pairs with #0CAEA1, and #6AAE0C with #500CAE.

#AE0C19 #6AAE0C #0CAEA1 #500CAE

Tetradic

#AE0C19 and #0CAEA1 are opposites, as are #AEA10C and #0C19AE. Together they form a rectangle on the wheel, with alternating gaps of 60° and 120°.

#AE0C19 #AEA10C #0CAEA1 #0C19AE

Tints

Mixing #AE0C19 with white in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #BE3D47, keeps 80% of the original. By #EFCED1, the mixture is 80% white.

#AE0C19 #BE3D47 #CE6D75 #DF9EA3 #EFCED1 #FFFFFF

Shades

Mixing #AE0C19 with black in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #8B0A14, keeps 80% of the original. By #230205, the mixture is 80% black.

#AE0C19 #8B0A14 #68070F #46050A #230205 #000000

Tones

Mixing #AE0C19 with middle gray in 20% steps produces this scale. The first mixture, #A5232E, keeps 80% of the original. By #89696B, the mixture is 80% middle gray.

#AE0C19 #A5232E #9C3A42 #925257 #89696B #808080

Copy color codes

Hex, RGB and HSL are three ways to write this screen color. Paste any of them into a CSS color property.

Hex

#AE0C19

RGB

rgb(174 12 25)

HSL

hsl(355.185 87.097% 36.471%)

CSS example

.color-sample {
  background-color: #AE0C19;
  color: #FFFFFF;
}

Channel breakdown

RGB

#AE0C19 uses 174 red, 12 green and 25 blue. Each bar shows how much of that channel’s 0–255 range the screen uses.

Red 68.2%

Green 4.7%

Blue 9.8%

CMYK

A simple CMYK estimate for #AE0C19 is 0.0% cyan, 93.1% magenta, 85.6% yellow and 31.8% black. These are ink amounts; a printer profile is needed to predict the result on paper.

Cyan 0.0%

Magenta 93.1%

Yellow 85.6%

Black 31.8%

Nearby colors

The nearest shorthand match is #AA1111. Its matching digit pairs let you write it as #A11 in CSS. For a modern design, keep #AE0C19 when you want an exact match. Use its web-safe neighbor, #990000, when matching a legacy palette of 216 colors.

Nearest shorthand: #AA1111 Nearest web-safe: #990000

Gradient to complement

#AE0C19 #932730 #784246 #5D5D5D #427874 #27938A #0CAEA1

Color vision previews

Compare how #AE0C19 appears in each simulation. When two chart lines or status indicators become hard to tell apart, a label, shape or line pattern gives readers another way to distinguish them. Individual perception varies.

Protanopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from long-wavelength cones, some reds and greens can look alike, and reds can appear darker.

#494117

Deuteranopia

A red–green color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from medium-wavelength cones, some greens can be difficult to distinguish from reds or browns.

#6E620E

Tritanopia

A blue–yellow color vision deficiency. Without a distinct response from short-wavelength cones, blue can resemble green, and yellow can resemble pink.

#C00015

Protanomaly (50%)

An altered long-wavelength cone response can make reds appear dimmer and harder to distinguish from greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#7A3A13

Deuteranomaly (50%)

An altered medium-wavelength cone response can reduce the visible difference between reds and greens. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#845010

Tritanomaly (50%)

An altered short-wavelength cone response can make blue harder to distinguish from green. This swatch shows the model’s halfway setting.

#AF051B

Grayscale (luminance)

This design check removes hue and preserves relative luminance so you can compare light and dark areas.

#565656

Partial grayscale (50% blend)

This design check mixes the original color halfway toward its grayscale equivalent in linear light. Use it to see how a design holds up as color fades.

#8B3E40

Reference: National Eye Institute: Types of Color Vision Deficiency

Technical reference

CAM16 and CIECAM02 below assume D65 white, an average surround, background Y of 20 against white at 100, and adapting luminance of 4.07 cd/m².

Linear sRGB

These channels scale with emitted light. Use them for lighting calculations and physically meaningful blends.

R 0.42327 G 0.00368 B 0.00972

Display P3

P3 displays can reproduce a wider range of reds and greens. These coordinates reproduce this same sRGB swatch on a color-managed P3 display.

R 0.62521 G 0.14100 B 0.13505

Linear Display P3

These P3 channels are proportional to light, before display encoding.

R 0.34877 G 0.01760 B 0.01635

CIE xyY

The x and y coordinates locate chromaticity on a diagram. Y gives relative luminance on a scale where white is 100.

x 0.615 y 0.323 Y 9.333

CMY

Ideal cyan, magenta and yellow are the complements of the encoded red, green and blue channels.

C % 31.765 M % 95.294 Y % 90.196

Binary RGB

Each eight-bit group represents one channel. Together they store the 24-bit hex color.

10101110 00001100 00011001