How Many Different Shades of Red Color are There? - Drawing Blog (2024)

Here is the longest list of red colors of different shades, tones and tints in the world, all with their official / common / trivial names and HEX codes. They are organized by logical groups, depending on their similarities, name origins, or other common characteristics. Please note, in spite of careful checking of dozens of resources there may still be some discrepancies between this list (most complete in the WEB at the moment with 445 named red colors and still rising) and other respectful sites, dealing with colors and design.

Our basic aim is to provide a fast comparison between red colors for a wide variety of users, being artists, designers or just curious minds. If you find this list useful, please share it with your friends, readers of your blog or any other people who may find it interesting. Color red, after all, is the most intense color and actually the oldest in all known languages (right behind black and white, which are, technically speaking not real colors). The red color is so old, in some of the languages (like Latin) the word for ‘colored’ and ‘red’ is actually the same.

#FF0000 Red 1 (Safe 16 SVG Hex 3)

#EE0000 Red 2 (Hex 3)

#CD0000 Red 3

#8B0000 (Dark) Red 4 (SVG)

#FE2712 Red (RYB)

As you probably already know, there are several standards dealing with Web colors and even at so basic color as red is, we soon bump into the lack of expressions. Adding a number to the name is a simple and effective solution, but doesn’t give any additional info to the end user. From the user’s point of view, an adjective like dark gives much more sense than number 4. Here is a group of such reds:

#ED1C24Red (Pigment)

#E72512 Pure Red

#BC243CTrue Red (Pantone)

#FF0033Bright Red (Safe Hex3)

#922A31Bright Red (Resene)

While the names are relatively explicit, we still can’tseriously work without their HEX values.

#BD4255International Light Red

#F70000 Luminous Red

#AB4E52Moderate Red

#E58E73Middle Red (Crayola)

#D92121Maximum Red (Crayola)

Darker tones of redare verging to the purple or brown very soon.

#5C0923Very Deep Red

#FF355ERadical Red

#722F37Dark Red aka Wine (ISCC NBS)

#3F1728Very Dark Red

#3A181ARustic Red

Unfortunately, these names rely too much on personal preferences and lack of absolute values, what could help to standardize a perception of a specific color in all its shades, tones, tints etc. There were several attempts to make a list of colors where everybody understands what color is associated with each specific name. These attempts were only partly successful. First of all, we are dealing with word meanings, which can be similarly subjective like the perception of colors. Then there were different interests (and powers) of groups who tried to establish the standards. And there was, of course, nonstop progress in technology. If at certain moments computers displayed only 16 different colors, today’s graphic cards show more than four million colors and they would produce even more, but the human eye can hardly recognize an even small portion of them.

#F2003CRed (Munsell)

#EE204D Red (Crayola)

#C40233 Red (NCS)

#EF3340 Red (Pantone)

#E60026Red (G&S … Rosa Gallego & Juan Carlos Sanz)

Now it’s clear the word red simply can’t describe the color because there are so many nuances. There are few other words with essentially the same meaning, often with vague origins, sometimes coming from raw materials, sometimes mistranslated, and always leading to more variety at naming, what gives more opportunity at the description on one hand but also more confusion on the other.

Here is a family of carmine colors:

#960018Carmine

#FF0038Carmine Red

#801522Carmine (Sherwin-Williams)

#D70040Rich Carmine aka Carmine (M&P)

#A9203EDeep Carmine

Carmine color got its name after several types of insects (cochineal) which were powdered and boiled in sodium or ammonia carbonate or cooked in boiled water with the addition of different chemicals. It’s pretty clear different shades of carmine came into the market way before this color actually got any kind of officialname.

#B5001AScarlet

#EF2929Scarlet Red 1

#CC0000Scarlet Red 2 aka Boston University Red

#A40000Scarlet Red 3 aka Dark Candy Apple Red

#560319Dark Scarlet

If we can say carmine is slightly purplish, scarlet is more inclined to the orange, what means it has some yellow instead of blue in the mix. You can bet there are more than five shades of scarlet, and we are continuing with another set with names of various origins.

#8C1717 Scarlet (Netscape)

#FF3300Scarlet (Websafe Hex 3) aka Nectarine

#FD0E35Scarlet aka Tractor Red aka Torch Red (Crayola, since 1998)

#FC2847 Scarlet (Crayola, since 2004)

#CD392A Scarlet (AS 2700)

By the way AS stands for Australian Standard. Yes, they have slightly differentperception of scarlet Down Under!It’s only fair to also mention scarlett with a double t before we continue with the family of crimson colors.

#7E2530Scarlett (Resene)

#DC143CCrimson

#78184ACrimson (NBS ISCC TC) aka Deep Purplish Red

#711922Crimson Red

#582124Burnt Crimson

The origin of word crimson is similar as the word carmine – it comes from the name of the insect Kermes vermilio (please note: there is a family of vermilion colors too and the list is coming soon!), which was originally used as the source of dye. Today it is generally accepted the word for a family of strong red colors with a pinch of blueish tone. In general, it has more of the blue than carmine.

#7E191BVermilion

#C63927Vermilion (RAL Color Standard)

#D9381EMedium Vermilion (Plochere)

#E34234Vermilion (Cinnabar)

#CC474BEnglish Vermilion (Crayola)

And there is also a shade of red called Vermillion (double l) with HEX value #F4320C listed in XKCD list of colors. XKCD is a Randall Munroe’s Web comic and one of his online projects was a color name survey with around quarter of a million participants who suggested (after some heavy filtering) 954 names for different colors, including Vermillion.

How About HEX Values for Red Pigments?

According to the origin of pigment, trade route or tradition of usage, many types of red became strongly associated with certain countries. English Vermilion above is only one of them. We have also mentioned Spanish Red (Rojo) aka Red (G&S – after Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz) with HEX code #E60026.

#E0162B Old Glory Red

#D43D1AEnglish Red

#AB4B52English Red (X11)

#FF5C5C Indian Red

#B94E48(Deep) Indian Red (Crayola) aka (Deep) Chestnut (Crayola)

Old Glory is a nickname of the American flag and now you have the HTML code for the red color in it. All English and Indian reds are a different story. They are colors of soil or dirt from India, rich with iron oxide. There are several iron oxides, varying in reddish and brownish tones and the percentage of these oxides is varying too, so there are several shades with similar or even the same name.

#CD5C5CIndian Red (SVG)

#FF6A6A Indian Red 1

#EE6363Indian Red 2

#CD5555 Indian Red 3

#8B3A3AIndian Red 4

Let’s have a few words abut Indian Red (again – called after the color of the soil in India). Crayola produces this color from 1958, but in 1999 after a suggestion of worrying parents believing this name suggest the color of the skin of American Indians, changed the name into Maroon, so you’ll find this very same color in the boxes with color pencils with this name. It was also named Vermont maple syrup in a special limited edition.

We have already mentioned insects, by which carmine and crimson colors got their names. Several of that pigments came to Europe after Spain conquered Mexico and introduced kermes insects to the dye market. Thanks to that fact and overall importance of Spanish traders we have colors named after this country. Similar stories are explaining the name of Persian reds in the next set of red colors.

#D10047Spanish Carmine

#E51A4C Spanish Crimson

#CC3333Persian Red

#4F212APersian Red (Resene)

#683332Persian Plum

The most known color in next group is probably Chinese Red, originally made from powdered cinnabar and from 8th (!) century from a synthesis of mercury and sulfur. Considering numerous factors affecting the tone of final dye, it should be not surprising if we find several relatively different shades with the same name – Chinese Red – in our case displayed only with one example.

#9B3D3DMexican Red

#A91101 Turkey Red

#9D2933Japanese Carmine

#AA381EChinese Red aka China Red

#C54F33Trinidad Red

Just like countries, other places helped to name a wide variety of red shades as well. The first presented family is Venetian red. These tones were originally achieved by iron oxide pigment, in last decades made by synthesis. A pigment is associated with two important ports: Venice (surprise, surprise) and Sinop, Turkey, thus being called sinopia as well. Venetian red was for centuries one of the most starting points for painting skin (especially among Rennesance artists). The desired tone of the skin was achieved by mixing sinopia with lime white (approximately two parts of Venetian red and one part of Lime white).

#C80815Venetian Red

#5B1F22Venetian Red (Resene)

#B33B24Dark Venetian Red (Crayola)

#CC553DVenetian Red (Crayola)

#E6735CLight Venetian Red (Crayola)

Tuscany is a region in Italy, but Tuscan Red has nothing to do with it. It’s actually kind of a signature color of Pennsylvania, USA, where it was used for coloring passenger cars at the railroad. Similarly, the closely related color came into use in Canada and Australia. The color is originally based on iron oxides (family of Indian Reds), but due instability dyes based on aniline became the standard.

#7C3030Tuscan Red

#FAD6A5 Tuscan

#C09999 Tuscany

#AD6242Tuscany (Resene)

#A67B5B Tuscan Tan

As you noticed, all the most popular tones of Tuscan red possess pretty high values of green, what relates the whole family with brown colors. There is also a well-known color Tuscan Brown with HEX code #6F4E37. We’ll continue with Italy and several antique / historical places, where specific types of reds got their names.

#9E3332Milano Red

#86282E Monza

#940000Pompeii Red

#9E1316Spartan Crimson

#99002Tyrian Red aka Tyrian Purple

Most of the presented names are self-explanatory, maybe we should just clarify the name Falu Red, named after Falun, Sweden, where well-known copper mine is located. You’ll also notice Kobe, Japan, for most of us best known by the most famous beef in the world. Bordeaux, on the other hand, is famous due their (red!) wine. We’ll deal with wine related reds soon. Or maybe a bit later – there are many groups to explore out there!

#D4574EValencia

#801818Falu Red

#CB6F4ARed Damask

#882D17Kobe

#4C1C24Bordeaux

Some places are so well-known by rd color, different paint makers started naming their paints after them. The problem is each one of them interpret red differently. One such problem is Sedona:

#AC614F Sedona Clay (Benjamin Moore)

#AF663F Sedona Clay (Evonik-Degussa)

#C19982 Sedona Sand (Kelly-Moore)

#DF9371 Sedona Stone (Nippon Paint)

#452927 Sedona Bronze (General Motors)

Considering the importance of red, definitely the most powerful color in the spectrum, we can expect it as an official color or part of official palette at important organizations. Let’s start with universities:

#CB333BLouisiana Tech University

#990000USC (University of South Carolina) Cardinal Red aka Crimson Tide (University of Alabama) aka OU Crimson Red (University of Oklahoma)

#B70101 University of Wisconsin–Madison aka Badger Red

#C8102E University of Huston

#B31B1BCornell Red aka Carnelian

It’s not surprising to find out several universities use the same tone of red like we can see at code #990000, sometimes also named Crimson Red (we have already presented different color with the same name and different HEX value) or Stizza. The word stizza is of Italian origin and it essentially means anger. We’ll deal with red shades related with emotions later.

#8C1515Cardinal Red (Stanford University)

#BB0000 Ohio State University Red

#CC0033Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Red

#7B1113 (University of Philippines)UP Maroon aka Tibetan Red

#D9004CUA (University of Arizona) Red

One of the reds above is called Maroon, after the marron, what is a French word for chestnut. We’ll take some time for the family of maroon colors, brownish red tones, later, where we’ll deal with red in nature, especially in the world of plants. Let’s complete the series of reds, assigned with universities.

#E8000DKU Crimson (University of Kansas)

#841617 Oklahoma Crimson

#AF002AAlabama Crimson

#D3003FUtah Crimson (University of Utah)

#C90016 Harvard Crimson

We can find the color for Harvard Crimson Red under#A51C30 value too.Some of the universities use more than one tone of red for their logotypes, team dresses, etc., what means you should check at their official sites before using any of this information. We will continue with another set of red colors, this time, assigned with authority in general.

As you know, red is associated with aggression and (mostly) masculine power. Red, scarlet, carmine and crimson were colors worn by important and influential people many centuries before these colors got their names. Let’s introduce the first set of reds with names suggesting an absolute power:

#ED2939Imperial Red

#901E1DInsignia Red

#C13311 Regency Red

#853E3C Monarch (BS 4800)

#803A4BCamelot

In the case you don’t know BS stands forBritish Standard. Being among royalties and other authorities, let’s look at church dignitaries too. There is a whole family of red shades named after cardinals (we have actually already seen some of them), who were among first who wore gowns of such colors. Please be aware red color was not allowed for regular people in many cultures. You’ll soon see how is this color popular among car makers and in traffic in general.

#C41E3ACardinal (Maerz and Paul)

#8A244ECardinal (Resene)

#9D101CCardinal (Sherwin-Williams)

#D41F18 Ford Cardinal Red

#B5342DGeneral Motors Cardinal Red

The color red is strongly related to several brands in automobile industry and Ferrari is among most popular ones. Apparently, this is not enough because the manufacturers decided to associate a specific color for racing cars coming from Italy. Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lancia and Maserati all used this color, which was adopted in honor of Prince Scipione Borghese who won the race from Peking to Paris in 1907 in – red colored Ferrari.

#FF2800 Ferrari Red

#D40000 Rosso Corsa

#F24816Rail Red aka Azo Orange

#A0333AAircraft Red aka CARC (Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission) Aircraft Red, ANA 619 aka International Red

#AF1E2DSign Red

Ferrari Red is associated with #FF1C00 as well. Traffic is of course closely related to danger, signals, safety, prevention and exclusion.

We find it in several standardized tones of red, which can be, despite different HTML / RGB / HEX codes pretty similar to each other.

#A6001AW3-Highway-Red aka DoT Highway Red

#BD1E24W3-Safety-Red aka OSHA Safety Red

#9D3C3F11086 DoT Highway Red (Federal standard 595)

#9E3A4011105 OSHA Safety Red, DoT Red (Federal standard 595)

#B04243 11120 OSHA Safety Red (Federal standard 595)

According to different standards and acceptable tolerance we can find some of the mentioned colors with same names and different HTML codes. We have similar situation in the next group too. By the way: RAL (Reichs-Ausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherung – Imperial Commission for Delivery Terms and Quality Assurance) is a well-known and widely used European color standard.

#BA312BSignal Red (AS 2700)

#A02128Signal Red (RAL 3001)

#E03C31 tudi #E23D28CG Red (Coast Guard)

#A93D43Coast Guard Buoy Red

#E62200Coast Guard Red #40

For Coast Guard we actually have at least two different hues of red, apart from #E03C31 they use #E23D28 too. The power of color red was always present as dominant, being able to control the people and organisations. We are not surprised finding it transformed into the world of giant corporations as well. Some of presented HTML codes are simulated hex values.

#D50F25 tudi HEX: #EA4335Google Red

#C4302BYoutube Red

#CA0002CNN Red

#ED1C16Coca-Cola

#E32934Pepsi

Google Red is knownfor another HEX code:#EA4335.Red color is extremely important in all areas, where we want to focus attention of the observer on something specific. While human eye yellow is most to yellow color, we use red for another reason, based on hard science. John William Strutt, more known as Lord Rayleigh found out it’s red which thanks to its highest wavelength in the visual spectra disperse least of all colors. This guarantees we’ll see red signs best of all.

#B44441Post Office Red

#CE2029Fire Engine Red

#69293BSiren

#FF5333Safety Cone

#C1121CTraffic Red (RAL 3020)

We all know how we use red color to mark important facts (underlined in red, being in red numbers) and the names in the next set of reds show exactly that.

#C51F1FFind The Company Red

#883531Totem Pole

#71333C Ribbon

#AD522ERed Stage

#962C54 Lipstick

It really doesn’t matter if we want to warn or attract somebody, red is here to give you a heads up. We often say it’s a warm color, but in sometimes it is more than warm – it’s hot!

#E25822Flame

#AB2524Flame Red

#F60018Laured aka Torch

#CF1020Lava

#A85533Vesuvius

We have more reds (although quite brownish and purplish) with names associated with heat, flames and fire:

#8C3F30Embers

#633528Hairy Heath

#4F2A2C Heath

#D70000Fire

#8F3F2AFire (Resene)

Before we turn towards to the brown side let’s see some more!

#F9423AWarm Red (Crayola)

#FF3855Sizzling Red (Crayola)

#FF404CSunburnt Cyclops

#4E2728Volcano

#B22222Fire Brick (SVG)

The family of fire brick colors belongs to thescarlet reds and their name came from the color of bricks, which were (and still are) made in a fire.

#FF3030Fire Brick 1

#EE2C2C Fire Brick 2

#CD2626 Fire Brick 3

#8B1A1A Fire Brick 4

#8E2323Fire Brick 5

While we are dealing withbuildings, we should also mention some red paints.

Popular red paints

One of the oldest red paints used by construction workers is definitely red. In America red paint is especially popular paint for barns. There are several reasons for that:

• It makes a nice contrast with white farm buildings.
• It was traditionally made of flex-seed oil mixed with rust (iron oxide), inexpensive and effective protection against moist and fungi.
• When first commercial paints came to the market in 19th century red was the cheapest.
• Today we have many lovely alternatives and new barns are not necessarily painted red, but many producersstill offer red paints with barn in the name:

#A5554E (165,85,78) Red Barn (Web)

#7C0A02 (124,10,2) Barn Red (Web)

#733D39 (115,61,57) Barn Red (Behr)

#8A5958 (138,89,88) Barn Door (Olympic)

#905959 (144,89,89) Barn Door (Porter Paints)

Here we can compare two web safe barn red colors with eight (altogether) paints mad by commercial paint-makers. The are relatively different but always more on the brownish, burnt side of the spectrum-

#7F453C (127,69,60) Red Barn (Sherwin-Williams)

#822A36 (130,42,54) Barn Red (Ralph Lauren)

#842928 (132,41,40) Pottery Barn (Benjamin Moore)

#945B58 (148,91,88) Barn Door (Taubmans)

#AF5453 (175,84,83) Barn Red (Dulux Paint)

Don’t forget – red color was one of the most obvious signs of success and having one’s own barn was definitely something to be proud off. Similar is true for cottages – today wo don’t look at them as cheap homes, but rather as extras for different purposes. Here are several examples of paints, named after typical red or reddish cottages:

#7F565B (127, 86, 91) Cottage Charm (Behr)

#D4B1B8(212,177,184)Victorian Cottage (Diamond Vogel)

#F3DDD8(243,221,216)Cozy Cottage (Porter Paints)

#F7DCDD(247,220,221)Primrose Cottage (Cloverdale)

#F8DCDE(248,220,222)Primrose Cottage (Vista Paint)

As you can see, these cottage red colorstend towards pink spectrum of colors. On the other hand we also have a selection with relatively large amounts of yellow, thus being more orange or brown:

#682A27 (104,42,39) Cottage Red (Benjamin Moore)

#855B51 (133,91,81) Jekyll Club Cottage Brick (Valspar Paint)

#876D65 (135,109,101) Lincoln Cottage Brown (Valspar Paint)

#A85846 (168,88,70) Cottage Spice (Diamond Vogel)

#C5826C (197,130,108) Cottage Clay (Behr)

Being the sign of nobility and prestige, it’s only natural to expect red colors named after precious or semiprecious stones.

#E0115FRuby

#9B111ERuby Red

#841B2DAntique Ruby aka Deep Red

#D10056Rubine Red

#CE4676Ruber

Ruby ( a chemical mixture of aluminum oxide with microelements, namely chromium) is by far the most popular red color related to minerals.

#AA4069Ruby (Crayola)

#843F5B Ruby (BS 381)

#711521Pearl Ruby Red

#9C2542 (approx)Big Dip O’Ruby (Metallic FX Crayola)

#97463CMojo

(Of course BS stands forBritish Standards.)With such popularity, we can only expect to have several ruby colors in numerous existing standards. Garnet, geranium, and other gemstones are less known and standardization is much easier, although far from being simple.

Please note, all metallic colors (like Big Dip O’Ruby) are only HEX approximations because currently there is no mechanism to display exact metallic effect on computer screens.

#943543Garnet (Pantone)

#BC3F4A Geranium aka Sanguine aka Strong Red

#D73B3E Jasper

#933D41Smokey Topaz

#832A0DSmokey Topaz (Crayola)

All kinds of chemical substances can be red or reddish colored, and some of the chemicals gave their names to specific red tints. In all cases, the color is dependent on the ion state in the substance. Iron, for instance, can be of reddish or greenish color, depending on the electron structures of the compounds (that’s why most of the beer and wine bottles are brownish or greenish).

181-185

#E30022Cadmium Red

#E3170DCadmium Red Deep

#FF030DCadmium Red Light

#71006ACobalt Red Violet

#98817BCinereous

The most known, yet far from being among most popular substances is rust. When iron is exposed to oxygen and if there’s some water (vapors are enough) it changes color from shiny silverish to reddish brown. Here are some colors, related to that tones.

#B7410ERust

#D0674FRed Dust

#DA2C43 Rusty Red

#B47360 Rust Red

#E44C9APantone Uncoated Rhodamine Red

The most known metal of red color is copper and we didn’t forget to include few examples of these shades of red as well. To be honest, most of us would put all of them into browns.

#CB6D51Copper Red

#6C322EKenyan Copper

#6E3D34Metallic Copper

#663334Red Oxide

#5D1F1ERed Oxide (Resine)

Most types of soil are brown and some of them can have pretty intensively reddish tones. In the majority of cases, the reason is iron oxide, which is roughly just a fancy name for rust.

#8E3928Red Prairie

#9A150ERed Ochre

#FF5721Flesh Ochre

#E2725BTerra Cotta

#CC4E5CDark Terra Cotta

We could go on and on with soils, but’ it’s probably better to save colors like Prairie Sand (HEX #883C32) or Clay Pot (HEX #9A4A33) for a separate article, dedicated to color brown. While we slowly moved from inorganic to organic nature, we can now continue with plants, known by red color. Or – better – with tones of red, named after different plants.

#673F45 Beetroot (California paint)

#FE6F5EBittersweet

#D44942Chili

#9B2335Chili Pepper

#7C2D37 Paprika

While everybody knows how a beetroot or paprika, two typically red plants look, we mostly associate word bittersweet with taste or feelings. We’ll meet a family of reds related with feeling later, but at this moment only say we are not dealing with anything abstract. Bittersweet is just another word for bitter nightshade, also called climbing nightshade, poisonberry, felonwood (Solanum dulcamara) with characteristic red berries. This color can qualify among orange too.

How about another set of plants, associated with color red?

#AF4035Cola

#87382FCrabapple

#B33654Hibiscus

#672F30Japanese Maple

#6B342A Meranti

Plants above have red blossoms, berries, leaves, wood or some combination of above. To make a comparison, we present a photo of crabapple from Pixabay.

We are not finished yet.

#BE0032 Pimento aka Vivid Red (Resene) aka Crimson Glory

#651C26 Pohutukawa

#A45A52 Redwood

#5B342ERedwood (Resene)

#9D442D Rockspray

Did you know pimento is a kind of paprika? Can you see the similarities of Pohutukawa red color with pohutukawa tree’s blossoms?

Ande there is more!

#8A2A52Rosebud Cherry

#65000B Rosewood

#752B2FTamarillo

#3E2F2ETamarind

#AA2429Waratah

We could go on and on with red colors related with plants, especially if we include all orange, pink, purple or brown shades, but instead of that let’s focus only on ones that are the most known by signature red color. Tomato, a so-called fruit-vegetable and close relative of before mentioned nightshade is definitely one of them.

#FF6347Tomato 1 (SVG)

#EE5C42 Tomato 2

#CD4F39 Tomato 3

#8B3626 Tomato 4

#9C322ETomato Red

We should not forget a rhubarb, which is in manyareas very popular in the kitchen too.

#AD071DRhubarb Red

#7E3949Dulux Australia Ripe Rhubarb

#AB555FRhubarb (Behr 130D-5)

#BF4F4FBenjamin Moore Rhubarb

#77202FRhubarb (Pantone)

Maroon is kind of chestnut, a tasty and edible seed with characteristic reddish brown or brownish red color. This family of colors, popular at all kinds of paints, including hair colors, is so abundant, we can present two full sets of five colors with an addition of another family of closely related colors called after chestnut.

#B03060Maroon (X11) aka Rich Maroon

#FF34B3Maroon 1

#EE30A7 Maroon 2

#CD2990 Maroon3

#8B1C62 Maroon 4

#800000 Maroon (16 SVG)

#421814Maroon (W3-ANA-510)

#5A3839Royal Maroon

#AD4379Mystic Maroon

#915F6DAztec Maroon

#C32148Bright Maroon aka Maroon (Crayola)

#412327 Maroon (Resene)

#7E354D Velvet Maroon

#402327 Maroon (Resene)

#691F01Maroon 5

In the next set, you’ll find a strange word catawba. This is not a maroon or chestnut, but sort of grape, used for jams, jelly, juice, and of course wines, which deserve another section of colors just for themselves. We included it to present a related color from the same group.

#954535 Chestnut (Maerz and Paul)

#C34A2C Chestnut Red

#633A34Chestnut Brown (RAL 8015)

#986960 Dark Chestnut

#703642 Catawba

Before we make a move to fruits, let’s take a moment for another very special group of reddish brown tones called after the mahogany, name for the wood of different species of trees (Swietenia family), including hybrids, being different quality, and, as far this article is concerned, of different colors. Here are some of them, and we’ll meet some more in the post about shades of brown.

#C04000 Mahogany

#CD4A4C Mahogany Red

#483230 Mahogany (Resene)

#79443BMahogany (NBS/ISCC TC)

#CA3435Mahogany (Crayola)

The red color is an attractive one, although most of the insects can’t see it. On the other hand, birds and mammals love it and plants developed many gorgeous fruits that attract animals, including people, who spread the seeds in exchange of beautiful (and often very tasteful) fruits. As you’ll see, some fruits are so popular they created special categoriesof red colors namedafter for them. Here are several groups of red colors named after various fruits:

#FBCEB1Apricot

#FF9966Atomic Tangerine

#43182F Blackberry

#873260 Boysenberry

#C14F3BClementine

Just like before, there are a lot of tones inclining to pink, purple, orange or brown color palettes, depending on the percentage of yellow and blue in the mixture.

Maybe we can clarify a bit about French raspberry. There are numerous raspberries all belonging to the genus Rubus. Some are named after colors, like blue, black, yellow and even golden, but we’ll not go into details. We’d rather add there are no species named French raspberry! The name of the color, in fact, came from French raspberry syrup of distinctive vivid pinkish red color.

#5E2A40Mulberry (Resene)

#C54B8CMulberry (Crayola)

#55141CPassion Fruit

#B93B8F Plum

#8D1D30Pomegranate

At this point, we can ask what’s the difference between plums and prunes? Well, the latin name for plums is Prunus (the same family as cherries, which will soon come in the spotlight), so it’s logic to expect we are dealing with the same kind of fruit. A prune is actually a dried plum and this can be seen as their colors above and below.

#701C1C Prune

#F5785A Pummelo Pulp

#B42041Raspberry Red

#701F28 Redberry

#842833 Shiraz

The least known fruit above is probably Shiraz. It’s a sort of a grape, from which red wine is made. It originates in France but is grown in many areas of the world, varying in taste, depending on the climate and soil. There are several hard to prove myths about the relation of grape called Shiraz with Shiraz, the capital of Persian empire (today’s Iran) or Syracuse (Syrah is another name for that grape).

Is it finally time to present a strawberry?

#BE2625Strawberry

#D14152 Strawberry Red

#FC5A8DStrawberry (Crayola)

#CD5D34Tangerine (Resene)

#FF9980Vivid Tangerine (Crayola)

While everybody knows strawberry, many people don’t distinguish between tangerine and mandarin. Tangerine has a bit smaller and prolongated shape of fruits, it has thicker skin, yet both taste pretty similar. As you can see colors named by different standards don’t always look the same. Even more – those standards are not fixed either. Knowing the HEX (HTML) code is probably the best option.

#F2473FWatermelon Pulp

#FF43A4Wild Strawberry

#FC6C85Wild Watermelon

#FD5B78Wild Watermelon (Crayola)

#522C35Wineberry

We can find a color named wineberry with HEX code #533039 too. One of the most popular fruits of the world is an apple and we can find it in several tones of red, yellow or green color. Let’s see the red part of the family for now.

#9D1309 Red Delicious Apple

#FF0800Candy Apple Red aka Apple-Candy Red

#A9373D Candy Apple Red (Behr 8371)

#E2062CMedium Candy Apple Red

#D66F62 Fuji Apple

Cherry has even more types of red colors. We have found enough for two whole sets of cherry red colors.

#C40000Cherry

#B3446CCherry (NBS/ISCC TC) aka Irresistible

#C41C22 Cherry aka Post Office Red (BS 381) BS … British Standard

#DA2647Cherry (Crayola)

#8B4131Dark Cherry aka Russet aka Monarch (BS 381)

#FF0047 Cherry Red

#6C132BDark Cherry Red

#330000Dark Cherry Red (Safe Hex3)

#A02422Bing Cherry

#790604Krylon Cherry Red

Cerise if French for cherry and we have two whole sets of cerise colors too. But for the moment we conclude at 300 shades of red!

#DE3163Cerise

#DA3287(Deep) Cerise (Crayola)

#E23D80Cerise Red

#EC3B83Cerise Pink

#DA3163 Cerise Magenta (Crayola)

It is not our intention to present all the subtle difference between cherries and cerise. For our main purpose, it’s probably enough to say that cerise colors have a larger percent of blue, what means they are in general slightly inclined to purple / violet spectra.

#9F1F4CMedium Cerise

#DA1D81Vivid Cerise

#E8A2CEVery Pale Cerise

#F400A1Hollywood Cerise aka Fashion Fuchsia

#BB3385Strong Cerise

Cerise colors are often similar with Fuchsia colors, so it’s only fair to proceed with flowers, which gave their name to several reds as well.

We have already mentioned several red flowers, which are a special story for themselves, because they can’t be seen by the majority of insects, otherwise the best pollinators of all. This means red flowers should rely on their smell or other pollinators, like tropical birds or wind.

#A95249Apple Blossom (Resene)

#E52B50Amaranth

#FFB7C5Cherry Blossom Pink

#A84F51Gerbera Daisy (Laura Ashley 44-23)

#D77A02Wild Orchid

#FF3800Coquelicot

#BE5C48Flamepea

#F20500Poppy

#87141FPoppy Flower

#853534Tall Poppy

A family of roses, where we can also find white and yellow sorts, are so abundant, we constructed two groups just for this undoubtedly the most popular flower in the world.

#FF033EAmerican Rose

#480607Bulgarian Rose

#D3545FRose (RAL)

#FF5050Rose (Crayola)

#D3A194Rose (Resene)

Considering the fact breeders create new sorts of roses all the time, this family could expand anytime soon.

#905D5DBois De Rose

#C48379 Grecian Rose

#AC512DRose of Sharon (Resene)

#ED0A3F Smell the Roses (Red)

#532934Black Rose

How about animals? Red is a color of aggression, attention, and attraction. It is well distributed through birds, especially males, who try to show themselves in best light in front of females, it is pretty popular at fish, color of warning in the world of insects (who are trying to warn especially birds) but relatively rare among terrestrial animals, where it’s much easier to find more earth tones, like reddish brown or brownish red.

#F58F84Ibis Wing Color

#B13F44Ladybud Red (Benjamin Moore)

#913228Red Kite

#7D4138Red Robin

#98010DRedwing

Color puce red has an interesting story as well. It’s a color of stains remaining on the sheets of the person, who was a victim of flea bites. Even washing couldn’t remove them. In many areas of the world fleas are actually very much still a present threat, so we should not be surprised to find so many types of puce color.

#CC8899Puce (NBS/ISCC TC)

#A95C68Puce (M&P)

#4E1609Puce (Pourpre color list)

#4F3A3CPuce (Pantone)

#ECC3BFPiglet Snout

There is a widely spread misconception about corals belonging to the world of plants. They are actually animals (invertebrates) and their skeletons are the essential component of famous coral reefs, where so many plants and animal species live. Characteristic color of corals is somewhere between red, pink and orange, thus being seen as girlish for many years.

#FF7F50Coral (SVG)

#FF7256Coral 1

#EE6A50Coral 2

#CD5B45Coral 3 aka Dark Coral

#8B3E2FCoral 4

We have designated coral as a girlish color. Salmon, although of pretty similar tones, is completely different story. If a certain piece of cloth is colored with one of the colors from the next family, it will be very likely described as pink if it’s for women or salmon, if it’s for men.

#FA8072 Salmon (SVG)

#FF8C69 Salmon 1

#EE8262Salmon 2

#CD7054Salmon 3

#8B4C39Salmon 4

#FF91A4Salmon (Crayola)

#FF3333Nova Scotia Salmon (Safe Hex3)

#FF6666Seattle Salmon (Safe Hex3)

#F1444A Salmon Pearl (Crayola)

#F77D64Salmon Red (BS4800) aka Lobster aka Azalea

#FFA07A Light Salmon (SVG)

#EE9572 Light Salmon 2

#CD8162 Light Salmon 3

#8B5742Light Salmon 4

#E9967ADark Salmon

Red is an appetite stimulant and red food color is a mandatory part of many meals. It is also very popular in packaging, in a tablecloth and even in restaurant logotypes. We listed several families of reds named after different kinds of food or spice.

#C65D57 Bacon

#FFC1CCBubble Gum

#8D4338Red Gum

#C73F17Chili Powder

#7B3F00Cinnamon

#FC1501Gummi Red

#B13E0FKidney Bean

#CC5058Lollipop

#DA614EJelly Bean

#7D0541Plum Pie

We are not over yet. Apart from the food, we find red appealing at drinks too. Sauces, co*cktails, and beverages are another interesting groups to know.

#FD3A4A Red Salsa (Crayola)

#8E3A36Tabasco

#A83239Punch

#582F2BMoccaccino

#822A32Sangria

Moccaccino is misspelled for Mochaccino and sangria is a mixed drink with red wine base, where different fruits, and maybe some additional sweetener and other drinks are present. By the way, you can find color named Sangria with hex code #92000A too. In Spanish sangria means blood. We’ll devote a whole group to blood red colors later. Let’s use the drink made from wine to wine red colors.

Yes, we finally came to one of the largest groups of red tones – with names coming from wines.

#5E2028Wine Red (RAL 3005)

#990012(Garnet) Red Wine

#955264 Vin Rouge

#AC1E44French Wine (Lie de Vin)

#881824 Plascon Red Red Wine

There are also codes #7F1A1A, #85274E, #580B1C for color called Wine Red. Vin Rouge, of course, means red wine in French (yet French Wine has its own color).

#800020Burgundy aka Ox Blood

#652525Burgundy (Resene)

#9F1D35Vivid Burgundy

#43302EOld Burgundy

#73343A Merlot (Resene)

#7F1734Claret (XONA)

#8B3F3FClaret H8 (Rodda)

#6E2233Claret (Resene)

#562627AMC Claret

#673147 Claret (NBS ISCC/TC) aka Wine Dregs

*Colortrend Pinot #7D5E67

*Pinot Noir (Sico 6039-41) #BDA3A5

*Cabernet (Benjamin Moore) #6C5B65

*Cabernet (Alcro) #230411

*Raspberry Wine (Pantone) #B63157

Here we have exactly 445 codes for different red shades, organised in groups by their name. If you think we are over, you are wrong – we will continue adding them and the number 500 is not too far away … See ya!