HTML Colors

Colors are displayed combining RED, GREEN, and BLUE light.

Color Values

HTML colors are defined using a hexadecimal (hex) notation for the combination of Red, Green, and Blue color values (RGB).

The lowest value that can be given to one of the light sources is 0 (hex 00). The highest value is 255 (hex FF).

Hex values are written as 3 double digit numbers, starting with a # sign.

16 Million Different Colors

The combination of Red, Green and Blue values from 0 to 255 gives a total of more than 16 million different colors to play with (256 x 256 x 256).

Most modern monitors are capable of displaying at least 16384 different colors.

If you look at the color table below, you will see the result of varying the red light from 0 to 255, while keeping the green and blue light at zero.

To see a full list of color mixes when the red light varies from 0 to 255, click on one of the hex or rgb values below.

Shades of Gray

Gray colors are displayed using an equal amount of power to all of the light sources. To make it easier for you to select the right gray color we have compiled a table of gray shades for you:

Cross-Browser Color Names

A collection of nearly 150 color names are supported by all major browsers.

View the cross-browser color names

Web Standard Color Names

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has listed 16 valid color names for HTML and CSS:

aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.

If you want to use other colors, you should specify their HEX value.

Web Safe Colors?

Some years ago, when computers supported max 256 different colors, a list of 216 "Web Safe Colors" was suggested as a Web standard, reserving 40 fixed system colors.

The 216 cross-browser color palette was created to ensure that all computers would display the colors correctly when running a 256 color palette.

This is not important now, since most computers can display millions of different colors. Anyway here is the list: