This article explains how to use the color crimson in design files, how to choose Pantone colors that are close to crimson, and what crimson symbolizes.

Crimson refers to a bright red with a hint of blue. It is often considered the color of fresh blood (blood red). Dark crimson is close to maroon and is a warm color, along with red, orange, and yellow. In nature, crimson is usually a ruby color found in birds, flowers, and insects. The bright red color of love, known as crimson, was originally a dye produced by an insect.

Crimson is a bright color that stands out. Use it sparingly to draw attention to a phrase or element or as a colorful background to indicate danger, anger, or caution. Avoid using it with black, as the two colors provide a low color contrast. White provides a much better contrast with crimson. Crimson often appears in Valentine's Day and Christmas designs.

When planning a design project intended for commercial printing, use CMYK formulations for crimson in your page layout software. For display on a computer monitor, use RGB values. Use hexadecimal designations when working with HTML, CSS, and SVG. The following formulations are best used to achieve crimson hues: