Color on the Web - RGB numbers and web-safe colors

Specifying RGB Colors

Colors in web pages are specified using 6 digit numbers.

These numbers are hexadecimal numbers, that is base-16 numbers, often called hex numbers for short. The letters a-f are used to represent the numbers 10-15.

RGB stands for Red - Green - Blue. All colors on your computer monitor are made by mixing light in these three colors.

• The first two digits specify how much Red light is in the color.
• The middle two digits specify how much Green light is in the color.
• The last two digits specify how much Blue light is in the color.

The more total light in a color the lighter the shade. The less total light in the color the darker it is.

• Black is the absence of color. #000000
• White is the maximum of all three colors. #ffffff
• Grey is medium intensity of all three. This is #666666. #999999 & #cccccc are lighter greys, #333333 is a darker grey.
• Red has mostly or only Red light in it. This is #cc0000.
• Green has mostly or only Green light in it. This is #009900.
• Blue has mostly or only Blue light in it. This is #000099.
• Purple is of course a mixture of Red and Blue. This is #990099.
• Yellow is made by mixing equal amounts of Red and Green. This is #999900.
• Orange is made by mixing Red with a smaller amount of Green. This is #ff6600.
• Brown is a dark Orange with perhaps a little Blue thrown in. This is #996633.
• Pale blue is a lot of everything with more Blue than Red or Green. This is #9999ff.

Web safe colors are those where each color component (red, green, blue) has a value of : 00, 33, 66, 99, cc, or ff.

To see all of the web safe colors take a look at the color chart. Additional help in picking colors that work well together is available from sites on the resource page.

It is possible to specify other colors. You may even get lucky with them, but you run the risk that they will come out very different than you expect on other peoples browsers and monitors.

Use enough contrast. On Macs colors usually look lighter, on PC's they look darker. There is also some variation between different video cards and monitors.

If you want everyone to be able to read your page, don't get too subtle. This is one reason it's good to get feedback on how your page looks in different browsers and different computers.

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