HTML- HTML Color Codes

by Brian on March 26, 2010

There are 16,777,216 different HTML color combinations.

I could go into great depth and detail about where they come from and how they were derived… But I’m not going to.

I’m going to give you some of the basics so you don’t sound like a moron when you’re speaking about HTML colors. And you’ll be able to create your own colors too.

The first thing you have to do is change your mindset.

Colors on computer monitors and televisions are called “additive” colors. When you combine red, green and blue together, they will appear white. When you take all colors away, you get black.

The antonym to “additive” colors are “subtractive” colors… This would be like crayons or paint… All colors combined create black and the subtraction of all colors creates white.

HTML colors are often written as hexadecimal numbers.

Hexadecimal numbers use 16 symbols to represent numbers.

  • 0-9 are equal to values 0-9.
  • A-F represent the values 10-15.

0 is the lowest value equaling “no color added”
F is the highest value equaling “all color added”

Low 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F High

Colors are specified by a hash tag (#) followed by a 6 digit hexadecimal number

Each 6 digit code is made up of 3 pairs of colors… Red, Green and Blue.

  • #000000 = Black… Absence of all colors
  • #FF0000 = Red
  • #00FF00 = Green
  • #0000FF = Blue
  • #FFFFFF = White… Combination of all colors

Internet Safe Colors
Unless someone is using a dinosaur of a computer, every color is safe for use on the Internet… So don’t worry if it’s an Internet safe color or not.

The chart below has 40 commonly used HTML color codes.

If you can’t find the HTML Color you are looking for, either create your own or search Google for “HTML Color Charts”

Black #000000
Dark Grey #424242
Medium Grey #6e6e6e
Lighter Grey #a4a4a4
Light Grey #d3d3d3
White #ffffff
Burgundy #800000
Red #ff0000
Magenta #ff00ff
Light Pink #faafbe
Brown #804000
Red-Orange #ff3300
Orange #ff6600
Light Orange #ff9912
Tan #eed6af
Gold #ffd700
Yellow #ffff00
Light Yellow #ffff66
Dark Green #006600
Olive Green #808000
Green #00ff00
Sea Green #8fbc8f
Bright Green #33ff00
Lime Green #32cd32
Light Green #a9f5a9
Dark Teal #ob615e
Teal #088a85
Turquoise #7fffd4
Aqua #00ffff
Light Turquoise #afeeee
Navy Blue #000080
Blue #0000ff
Light Blue #1e90ff
Sky Blue #00bfff
Pale Blue #87cefa
Blue-Grey #0b3861
Indigo #08088a
Purple #800080
Plum #b93b8f
Lavender #e3e4fa

P.S.

If HTML is confusing to you… You might want to read an introduction to HTML and basic HTML codes.

Previous post:

Next post: