What’s the difference between Perylene Red and Pyrrol Red?

Perylene Red (PR178) and Pyrrol Red (PR254) are both middle reds, true red’s reds, fire engine type of colors. If you see them on the page, you think, “Yup, that’s red.” So what’s the difference?

Comparison

I compared Daniel Smith Perylene Red (PR178) with Holbein Pyrrol Red (PR254). Daniel Smith is the only producer of PR178 that I know, and Holbein is my favorite Pyrrol Red.

Composition: Both are single-pigment reds that are aptly named.

• Perylene Red is in the Perylene family which is typically transparent, dark-valued and low-chroma; Perylene Red is the brightest Perylene I know.
  Other Perylenes: PR178, PR149, PV29, PBk31
• Pyrrol Red is in the pyrrol or diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) family, which are typically red to orange, high-chroma, and semi-opaque.
  Other Pyrrols: PO73, PO71/DPP orange, PR255, PR264

Hue: Perylene Red is slightly cooler (closer to magenta) while Pyrrol Red is slightly warmer (closer to scarlet).

Value: Perylene Red gets a little darker. It is almost crimson. Pyrrol Red is bright throughout its range.

Chroma: Perylene Red is a little more muted / grayish. This is most noticeable if you remove the value mismatch and only compare the more diluted end / lighter values.

Opacity: Perylene Red is mostly transparent, while Pyrrol Red is more opaque.

Drying Shift: Perylene Red has more of a drying shift. The colors look more similar when wet. The Perylene Red becomes darker and more muted as it dries.

Color Mixes

Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65)

Perylene Red’s orange mixes are kind of desaturated, while Pyrrol Red’s mixes make fairly high chroma scarlets.

Quin Violet (PV19)

Quin VIolet deepens, darkens, and cools both reds. Because of its transparency, perhaps, Perylene Red seems to sink more deeply into the mix, creating a uniform deep crimson. Pyrrol Red seems to float a bit above the mix.

Ultramarine Blue (PB29)

Perylene Red’s mixes are easier to get dark and slightly lower chroma, which I actually like in this instance because the very desaturated mixes are great for distant mountains. Pyrrol Red’s violets are also desaturated, but in kind of an awkward way.

Indanthrone Blue (PB60)

Mixes are pretty similar because Indanthrone Blue gets quite dark, which makes up for Pyrrol Red’s tendency to stay light. I did have to use a lot of paint in the Pyrrol Red dark mixes, maybe too much.

Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:1)

Mixes with Perylene Red are easier to get dark, so you can make indigo. In mixes with more red, I prefer Perylene Red’s muted violets to the sort of “red but muddy” of Pyrrol Red.

Cerulean Blue (PB36)

Very similar situation where Perylene Red can make dark colors and Pyrrol Red really cannot. The diluted muted lavender is pretty similar.

In general, both these reds mix similarly, making neither the brightest oranges nor the brightest violets. Perylene Red’s mixes are generally darker and lower chroma, offering more subtlety. Pyrrol Red’s mixes are more opaque, so they don’t get as dark, and a bit higher chroma, though again not the highest chroma in any direction.

Phthalo Green (PG7)

Neither of these make a totally neutral gray with this particular Phthalo Green (which is on the warm or yellowish side for a PG7). It always remains somewhat brown.

Conclusion

These colors are too similar to have both in your palette, so which should you choose? Both are strong, both read as red, and both are suitable for the middle red slot. That said, I think that “neither” is an option since I don’t think this to be a particularly vital slot (I prefer pink/rose for mixing. PV19 or PR122 mixes brighter purples, while if it’s bright oranges you’re after, PR209 does it better.)

But let’s say you want a red to paint red things. Sometimes you just want a convenience red, like for fall in New England.

And sometimes you want to mix those subtle desaturated violets and violet-grays.

Generally, Perylene Red might appeal to you more if you like darker, more muted, subtle colors, while Pyrrol Red will appeal to someone who likes brighter colors.

The argument against Perylene Red is that it’s too dull for a bright red and too bright for a dark/earth color, making it kind of an awkward in-between. It also has an annoying drying shift, though less so than other Perylenes.

The argument against Pyrrol Red is that it’s too obvious, like a red crayon or the Red Sox logo. As a result, the unmixed color can feel like an unnatural, taking one out of the painting – though it’s useful for, say, urban sketching at a Red Sox game.

If you don’t have an aesthetic preference, I might choose on the basis of your palette composition as a whole and which one is more distinct from your other colors:

Perylene Red (PR178) might be too similar to other colors in your palette if you have a crimson, such as Pyrrol Crimson (PR264) or an Alizarin Crimson hue, or a Perylene-based dark red, such as Perylene Maroon (PR179) or Perylene Violet (PV29). Add a bit of blue to your PR178 and it can easily cover those dark red slots. This also means that if you want to get rid of any of those colors, PR178 might be a good excuse to bump them.

Pyrrol Red (PR254) might be too similar to other colors in your palette if you have a bright scarlet, such as Pyrrol Scarlet (PR255) or Naphthol Scarlet (PR188). Adding a little orange-yellow to your Pyrrol Red gives you a convincing Pyrrol Scarlet hue. Pyrrol Red can’t get very dark, so you’ll want to make sure you have some dark colors that can help you make dark mixes, such as Indanthrone Blue, Payne’s Gray, or Perylene Violet.