Pyrrole red (PR254)
In SwedishPyrrole red (PR254) is a new pigment. The color was invented in 1974 and the production of pigments began in 1983. But for its young age, the color is well known and established, and almost iconic, the color has the nickname Ferrari red, which reveals its main use.
All previous red car paints faded and became chalky over the years. Pyrrole red what the first durable bright red pigment for car paints. It quickly established itself in the market. Few have heard of pyrrole red or PR254 but many recognize Ferrari red.
Pyrrole red is a very intense, semi-opaque and strongly staining color that is fire truck red. The color is very light-resistant and loses only a little value and hue when it dries. It likes water, it is very vital on wet surfaces.
It has relatives who are both warmer and colder. The warmer PR255 is often given different names such as Scarlet lake, scarlet red, vermilion. Additions to the name as light, or medium are common. The more violet variant PR264 can be called anything: Ruby red, ruby, carmine, madder, purple, crimson, deep. There is no stopping the manufacturers’ imagination when it comes to names for PR264, why not just call it e.g. pyrrole ruby?
Not all major manufacturers have the color, but those who have it, usually give it the name Pyrrole red. But some invent a more or less imaginative name for it. Here are some examples of different manufacturers that can not name this color in a sensible way:
WINSOR & NEWTON – COTMAN WATERCOLOUR: Cadmium red deep hue
WINSOR & NEWTON: winsor red
MIJELLO: Permanent Red Deep
LUKAS: Lukas Red
SCHMINCKE – HORADAM: Scarlet red
BLOCKX: Blockx red
As a watercolor paint, Pyrrole Red is an excellent substitute for the toxic classic color cadmium red. The two colors share some properties with each other, they are both quite opaque and very pure in hue, they are also both useless to violet mixtures. Pyrrole red gives nice mixtures in the orange direction but not in the violet, it is also not so well mixed with any complementary color for different gray colors.
Pyrrole red works best unmixed or with any yellow for different orange colors. It is an asset every time you paint a fire truck, Santa Claus or a red pepper or why not a red Ferrari.
Information
Color index name: PR254
Lightfastness: Excellent
Transparency: Half opaque
Staining: Very staining
Granules: No.
