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Using Color On Your Web Page

In HTML we use Hexadecimal Color Codes [based on RGB values] or Color Names to insert colors into HTML documents.

Hexadecimal Color Codes

The Hexadecimal Color Code consists of 6 numbers and/or letters, combining to give you over 14 million possible colors, shades, hues and tints.

The 6-number-and/or-letter combinations are actually 3 pairs of values where RR, GG, BB are the hexadecimal digits specifying the Red, Green, and Blue values of the color. This value is written as #RRGGBB. The number values range from 0 - 9; letter values range from A to F.

Here is an example of a Hexadecimal Color Code:

<FONT COLOR="#0000FF">Here is some example text I want to color</FONT>

The above line of code will display the example text in blue like this:

Here is some example text I want to color

Color Names

Colors can also be specified by their official Color Name. Originally there were 16 Color Names, picked as the standard 16 colors supported with the Windows VGA palette. Today there are hundreds of standard colors with official color names.

A Color Name is used in this format:

<FONT COLOR="blue">Here is some example text I want to color</FONT>

The above line of code will display the example text in blue like this:

Here is some example text I want to color

Both methods are perfectly legitimate methods of defining HTML colors but the Hexadecimal Color Code system will give you a much wider range of possible color choices.

Finding Hexadecimal Codes To Use

In you are using an HTML Editor, you simply choose the color you want from a built-in color chart and the editor translates the color into the appropriate Hexadecimal Color Code for you.

If you are using a simple text editor like Notepad you can use our handy reference list of Hexadecimal Color Codes and Color Names.


Colored text is an excellent start but a picture is worth a thousand words! Let's add some images to your page:

~~~~~ On to "Embedding Images" ~~~~~