More Information > Hexadecimal Notation

This page describes colors on web pages. Web page colors are specified using hexadecimal notation or names.

Using hexadecimal notation, the first way to express a color is to specify the amount of each of the three primary colors to mix. By specifying the red, green, and blue components, you can construct any color.

Each of the 6 digits in the hexadecimal code represents a value of the final color.

• #NNnnnn - Red Color Value
• #nnNNnn - Green Color Value
• #nnnnNN - Blue Color Value

The amount of each color is specified as two hexadecimal digits. The value 00 means none of a color and the value FF means all of a color. There are 216 colors that look the same on every system that can display at least 256 colors. These colors are made up of 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of each color combined with all those amounts of each other color. For example, if you combine 20% red and 80% green and 40% blue, you get dark green with some blue and a touch of red.

The hexadecimal values that are equivalent to these percentages are shown in the following table.

To use these hexadecimal values to produce a color, precede them with the # sign to show that they are in hexadecimal format. For example, to get a color that is 20% red, 80% green, and 40% blue, you write #33CC66. You can use colors other than the 216 safe ones, but they may not look the same on all browsers.

The following table lists hexadecimal codes for commonly used colors.

For More Information

You can read more about colors on web pages and hexadecimal notation in the article, Adding a touch of style at W3.org.