HTML Colors

by Dave Raggett

Named colors

The standard set of color names is: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow. These 16 colors are defined in HTML 3.2 and 4.01 and correspond to the basic VGA set on PCs. Most browsers accept a wider set of color names but use of these is not recommended.
 
Color names and sRGB values
black = "#000000" green = "#008000"
silver = "#C0C0C0" lime = "#00FF00"
gray = "#808080" olive = "#808000"
white = "#FFFFFF" yellow = "#FFFF00"
maroon = "#800000" navy = "#000080"
red = "#FF0000" blue = "#0000FF"
purple = "#800080" teal = "#008080"
fuchsia = "#FF00FF" aqua = "#00FFFF"

Thus, the color value "#800080" is the same as "purple".

Hexadecimal color values

Values like "#FF9999" represent colors as hexadecimal numbers for red, green and blue. The first two characters following the # give the number for red, the next two for green and the last two for blue. These numbers are always in the range 0 to 255 decimal. If you know the values in decimal, you can convert to hexadecimal using a calculator, like the one that comes as part of Microsoft Windows.
Enter RGB or Hex value and press appropriate button to convert
red: Hex color value
green:
blue:

Browser safe colors

New computers support thousands or millions of colors, but many older color systems can only show up to 256 colors at a time. To cope with this, these browsers make do with colors from a fixed palette. The effect of this is often visible as a speckling of colors as the browser tries to approximate the true color at any point in the image. This problem will gradually go away as older computers are replaced by newer models.

Most browsers support the same so called "browser safe" palette. This uses 6 evenly spaced gradations in red, green and blue and their combinations. If you select image colors from this palette, you can avoid the speckling effect. This is particularly useful for background areas of images.

If the browser is using the browser safe palette, the page background uses the nearest color in the palette. If you set the page background to a color which isn't in the browser safe palette, you run the risk that the background will have different colors depending on whether the computer is using indexed or true-color.

These are constructed from colors where red, green and blue are restricted to the values:
 
RGB 00 51 102 153 204 255
Hex 00 33 66 99 CC FF

Here is a table of the browser safe colors and their hex values. My thanks to Bob Stein for this arrangement.
 
FFF
 FFF		 CCC
 CCC		 999
 999		 666
 666		 333
 333		 000
 000		 FFC
 C00		 FF9
 900		 FF6
 600		 FF3
 300
99C
 C00		 CC9
 900		 FFC
 C33		 FFC
 C66		 FF9
 966		 FF6
 633		 CC3
 300		 CC0
 033
CCF
 F00		 CCF
 F33		 333
 300		 666
 600		 999
 900		 CCC
 C00		 FFF
 F00		 CC9
 933		 CC6
 633		 330
 000		 660
 000		 990
 000		 CC0
 000		 FF0
 000		 FF3
 366		 FF0
 033
99F
 F00		 CCF
 F66		 99C
 C33		 666
 633		 999
 933		 CCC
 C33		 FFF
 F33		 996
 600		 993
 300		 663
 333		 993
 333		 CC3
 333		 FF3
 333		 CC3
 366		 FF6
 699		 FF0
 066
66F
 F00		 99F
 F66		 66C
 C33		 669
 900		 999
 966		 CCC
 C66		 FFF
 F66		 996
 633		 663
 300		 996
 666		 CC6
 666		 FF6
 666		 990
 033		 CC3
 399		 FF6
 6CC		 FF0
 099
33F
 F00		 66F
 F33		 339
 900		 66C
 C00		 99F
 F33		 CCC
 C99		 FFF
 F99		 CC9
 966		 CC6
 600		 CC9
 999		 FF9
 999		 FF3
 399		 CC0
 066		 990
 066		 FF3
 3CC		 FF0
 0CC
00C
 C00		 33C
 C00		 336
 600		 669
 933		 99C
 C66		 CCF
 F99		 FFF
 FCC		 FFC
 C99		 FF9
 933		 FFC
 CCC		 FF9
 9CC		 CC6
 699		 993
 366		 660
 033		 CC0
 099		 330
 033
33C
 C33		 66C
 C66		 00F
 F00		 33F
 F33		 66F
 F66		 99F
 F99		 CCF
 FCC		 CC9
 9CC		 996
 699		 993
 399		 990
 099		 663
 366		 660
 066
006
 600		 336
 633		 009
 900		 339
 933		 669
 966		 99C
 C99		 FFC
 CFF		 FF9
 9FF		 FF6
 6FF		 FF3
 3FF		 FF0
 0FF		 CC6
 6CC		 CC3
 3CC
003
 300		 00C
 C33		 006
 633		 339
 966		 66C
 C99		 99F
 FCC		 CCF
 FFF		 339
 9FF		 99C
 CFF		 CCC
 CFF		 CC9
 9FF		 996
 6CC		 663
 399		 330
 066		 990
 0CC		 CC0
 0CC
00F
 F33		 33F
 F66		 009
 933		 00C
 C66		 33F
 F99		 99F
 FFF		 99C
 CCC		 006
 6CC		 669
 9CC		 999
 9FF		 999
 9CC		 993
 3FF		 660
 0CC		 660
 099		 CC3
 3FF		 CC0
 0FF
00F
 F66		 66F
 F99		 33C
 C66		 009
 966		 66F
 FFF		 66C
 CCC		 669
 999		 003
 366		 336
 699		 666
 6FF		 666
 6CC		 666
 699		 330
 099		 993
 3CC		 CC6
 6FF		 990
 0FF
00F
 F99		 66F
 FCC		 33C
 C99		 33F
 FFF		 33C
 CCC		 339
 999		 336
 666		 006
 699		 003
 399		 333
 3FF		 333
 3CC		 333
 399		 333
 366		 663
 3CC		 996
 6FF		 660
 0FF
00F
 FCC		 33F
 FCC		 00F
 FFF		 00C
 CCC		 009
 999		 006
 666		 003
 333		 339
 9CC		 336
 6CC		 000
 0FF		 000
 0CC		 000
 099		 000
 066		 000
 033		 663
 3FF		 330
 0FF
00C
 C99		 009
 9CC		 33C
 CFF		 66C
 CFF		 669
 9FF		 336
 6FF		 003
 3CC		 330
 0CC
00C
 CFF		 009
 9FF		 006
 6FF		 003
 3FF

Setting the color

<body bgcolor="white" text="black">
<table border="0" cellpadding="5" bgcolor="aqua">
 <tr>
  <td bgcolor="yellow">yellow colored table cell and text</td>
  <td style="background-color:blue;color:white">blue colored table cell and white colored text (not in NS)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
  <td>aqua colored table cell</td>
  <td>
    <font size="+1" color="red" face="Garamond, Times New Roman">
        aqua colored table cell and red colored text
    </font>
  </td>
 </tr>
</table>
</body>

yellow colored table cell and text blue colored table cell and white colored text
aqua colored table cell aqua colored table cell and red colored text