The key to text and background colors on The Web, is mixing Red, Green and Blue.Return to top of pageYour choice is from 256 shades of each of these three colors blended together. Theoretically 16,777,216 available colors! (256 cubed)
Remember that you are mixing colors of light (rather than paint). The same rules apply to web pages, as apply to lighting designers for stage, TV screen or department store windows. All use the sytem known as RGB (red green blue)
The numbers used to represent colors are hexadecimal which uses 16 numbers where we are more used to 10. The hexadecimal system runs from 0 to 15 rather than 0 to 9. Letters are used for numbers 10 to 15 (a, b, c, d, e, f). In this system the lowe st value is still 0 while the highest is f. For colors the numbers go in pairs, the first 2 being for Red, the middle 2 for Green and the last 2 for Blue.
The chart below makes the way colors work and blend on web pages easy to understand. And you can pick the ones you like, copy the hexadecimal number for your own pages. Just drag your mouse across the hexadecimal number (include the whole string) next to the colour you want for your background. Copy the selected number and paste it after the word body in the body tag.
For example Neon Blue is next to the number #4d4dff, so you copy the whole string #4d4dff and paste it after the word body using the attribute bgcolor so your tag looks like <body bgcol or=#4d4dff>
For colour inside tables and table cells you can also use the same structure eg
<td bgcolor=#4d4dff>Take special note of the top 8 listings, and the grey shades at the bottom of this page. Nearly every monitor and video card combination will display these colors slightly differently.
Wonderful as these colors are, they won't look the same on every monitor/video card combination. So it's important to test your colour on Windows PC's as well as Macintosh.
Copy this page and experiment with web colors on your own.
Color Hexadecimal White #ffffff Black #000000 Red #ff0000 Green #00ff00 Blue #0000ff Magenta #ff00ff Cyan #00ffff Yellow #ffff00 Aquamarine #70db93 Baker's Chocolate #5c3317 Blue Violet #9f5f9f Brass #b5a642 Bright Gold #d9d919 Brown #a62a2a Bronze #8c7853 Bronze #a67d3d Cadet Blue #5f9f9f Cool Copper #d98719 Copper #b87333 Coral #ff7f00 Corn Flower Blue #42426f Dark Brown #5c4033 Dark Green #2f4f2f Dark Green Copper #4a766e Dark Olive Green #4f4f2f Dark Orchid #9932cd Dark Purple #871f78 Dark Slate Blue #6b238e Dark Tan #97694f Dark Turquoise #7093db Dark Wood #855e42 Dusty Rose #856363 Feldspar #d19275 Firebrick #8e2323 Forest Green #238e23 Gold #cd7f32 Goldenrod #dbdb70 Green Copper #527f76 Green Yellow #93db70 Hunter Green #215e21 Indian Red #4e2f2f Khaki #9f9f5f Light Blue #c0d9d9 Light Steel Blue #8f8fbd Light Wood #e9c2a6 Lime Green #32cd32 Mandarian Orange #e47833 Maroon #8e236b Medium Aquamarine #32cd99 Medium Blue #3232cd Medium Forest Green #6b8e23 Medium Goldenrod #eaeaae Medium Orchid #9370db Medium Sea Green #426f42 Medium Slate Blue #7f00ff Medium Spring Green #7fff00 Medium Turquoise #70dbdb Medium Violet Red #db7093 Medium Wood #a68064 Midnight Blue #2f2f4f Navy Blue #23238e Neon Blue #4d4dff Neon Pink #ff6ec7 New Midnight Blue #00009c New Tan #ebc79e Old Gold #cfb53b Orange #ff7f00 Orange Red #ff2400 Orchid #db70db Pale Green #8fbc8f Pink #bc8f8f Plum #eaadea Quartz #d9d9f3 Rich Blue #5959ab Salmon #6f4242 Scarlet #8c1717 Sea Green #238e68 Sweet Milo #6b4226 Sienna #8e6b23 Silver #e6e8fa Sky Blue #3299cc Slate Blue #007fff Spicy Pink #ff1cae Spring Green #00ff7f Steel Blue #236b8e Summer Sky #38b0de Tan #db9370 Thistle #d8bfd8 Turquoise #adeaea Very Dark Brown #5c4033 Violet #4f2f4f Violet Red #cc3299 Wheat #d8d8bf Yellow Green #99cc32 This is Black #000000 Yet another Grey #111111 Yet another Grey #222222 Yet another Grey #333333 Yet another Grey #444444 Yet another Grey #555555 Yet another Grey #666666 Yet another Grey #777777 Yet another Grey #888888 Yet another Grey #999999 Yet another Grey #aaaaaa Yet another Grey #bbbbbb Yet another Grey #cccccc Yet another Grey #dddddd Yet another Grey #eeeeee This is White #ffffff Grey #999999 Grey With A Little Red #aa99999 Grey With A Little Green #99aa99 Grey With A Little Blue #99999aa Grey Again #999999 Grey With Some More Red #aa9999 Grey With Some More Green #99aa99 Grey With Some More Blue #9999aa Grey #999999 Grey With Colour Safe Red #cc9999 Grey With Colour Safe Green #99cc99 Light Grey With Colour Safe Blue #9999cc Grey #999999 Grey With A Little Red #aa9999 Grey With Some More Red #bb9999 Grey With Colour Safe Red #cc9999 Light Grey With Colour Safe Red #ffcccc Grey #999999 Grey With A Little Green #99aa99 Grey With Some More Green #99bb99 Grey With Colour Safe Green #99cc99 Light Grey With Colour Safe Green #ccccff Grey #999999 Grey With A Little Blue #9999aa Grey With Some More Blue #9999bb Grey With Colour Safe Blue #9999cc Light Grey With Colour Safe Blue #ccccff