Are HTML color codes and CSS color codes the same thing?

In practice, yes. Color is set by CSS rather than by HTML, and has been for a long time, but HTML color code is the phrase almost everybody uses and searches for. The values are identical either way: the same hex, RGB, HSL and names apply whether you write them in a style attribute, a stylesheet, or a framework class.

What is a hex color code?

A hex code is six hexadecimal digits, two each for red, green and blue, from 00 to FF. #7A5CFF is 122 red, 92 green and 255 blue. Hexadecimal counts 0 to 9 then A to F, so FF is 255, the largest a single channel goes. The hash is part of the value and CSS will not read it without one.

How many HTML colors are there?

16,777,216, which is 256 values for each of the three channels. Only 139 of them have a name a browser recognizes, which is why hex, RGB and HSL exist: they reach every color, and the names reach 139.

What are the 16 original HTML colors?

White, silver, gray, black, red, maroon, yellow, olive, lime, green, aqua, teal, blue, navy, fuchsia and purple. They came from the VGA palette and were the only colors HTML 4.01 named. Everything else a browser recognizes today arrived later, from X11 by way of SVG.

Should I use hex, RGB or HSL?

Hex for anything you paste from a design tool, which is most of the time. RGB when you are working with a value in code, since the channels are plain decimal numbers. HSL when you want to adjust a color by hand rather than replace it: drop the lightness and you have the same color, darker, which neither of the other two lets you do without a calculator.

What is the difference between #RGB, #RRGGBB and #RRGGBBAA?

Three digits is shorthand: each one is doubled, so #F0A means #FF00AA. Six is the ordinary form. Eight adds two more digits of alpha, from 00 for fully transparent to FF for fully opaque, so #FF000080 is red at about half. Four digits is the shorthand of the eight-digit form. All four are valid CSS and every current browser reads them.

How do I use a color code in HTML?

Through CSS, either in a stylesheet or in a style attribute on the element. color sets the text, background-color sets the panel behind it and border-color sets the outline. The old bgcolor and text attributes still work in most browsers but were removed from the standard, and they only ever understood the original sixteen names.

HTML color codes

Pick a color below and copy its code. A color on the web is written four ways, and they all describe the same thing: a hex code like #7A5CFF, the same three channels as rgb(122, 92, 255), an hsl() you can darken without reaching for a picker, or one of 148 names a browser already knows.

HEX#7A5CFFRGBrgb(122, 92, 255)HSLhsl(251, 100%, 68%)

Hue251°

Brightness100%

The four ways to write a color

All four lines below are the same color, #7A5CFF. Which one you reach for is a question of what you are about to do with it.

Hex
#7A5CFF
Two hexadecimal digits each for red, green and blue, from 00 to FF. The most common way to write a color on the web, and the one every design tool copies to your clipboard.
RGB
rgb(122, 92, 255)
The same three channels in decimal, 0 to 255. Easier to reason about when you are changing a value by hand, and the form most programming languages hand you.
HSL
hsl(251, 100%, 68%)
Hue as an angle, then saturation and lightness as percentages. The only one of the four you can adjust meaningfully without a picker: drop the lightness and you get the same color, darker.
Name
no CSS keyword
One of 148 words a browser recognizes. Readable and impossible to mistype silently, but only 139 distinct colors are reachable this way, which is why the other three notations exist.

Putting one on the page

/* in a stylesheet */
.headline {
  color: #7A5CFF;
  background-color: rgb(122, 92, 255);
  border-color: hsl(251, 100%, 68%);
}

/* the same color at half opacity, three ways */
.overlay {
  background-color: #7A5CFF80;
  background-color: rgb(122 92 255 / 50%);
  background-color: hsl(251 100% 68% / 50%);
}

<!-- or straight on the element -->
<p style="color: #7A5CFF">Purple text</p>

The three lines in .overlay are the same color at half opacity, and a browser takes whichever it understands last. Two extra hex digits carry the alpha, from00 for invisible to FF for solid;rgba() and hsla() are the older spelling of the same thing and still work everywhere.

Note that all of that is CSS. HTML has not set color itself since thebgcolor attribute was dropped from the standard, though browsers still honor it. "HTML color code" is what people say, and it is what this page is called, but every value on it is read by CSS.

The original sixteen

These were the only colors HTML 4.01 named, taken from the VGA palette: eight hues, each at a light and a dark level. Between them they cover most of what anybody looks up - black, white, red, blue, green, yellow, gray - which is why they are still the fastest thing to type. Every other name a browser accepts today arrived later, from X11 by way of SVG, and the old bgcolor attribute never learned any of them.

#FFFFFF
#C0C0C0
#808080
#000000
#FF0000
#800000
#FFFF00
#808000
#00FF00
#008000
#00FFFF
#008080
#0000FF
#000080
#FF00FF
#800080

The color chart

Every color a browser knows by name, sorted by hue rather than alphabetically, and light to dark inside each band. Click a hex code to copy it, or a name to open its page. The bands are cut at the hue angles named under each heading, which is a measurement rather than an opinion about what the colors are called, and it puts a couple of them somewhere you might not expect. For the RGB and HSL of all of them in one alphabetical table, the color names reference is the page.

Reds

Hue 355 to 15 degrees. CSS brown is here rather than with the oranges: it measures hue 0, which makes it a dark, dulled red. 11 colors.

Reds: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
mistyrose	#FFE4E1	rgb(255, 228, 225)
lightcoral	#F08080	rgb(240, 128, 128)
salmon	#FA8072	rgb(250, 128, 114)
rosybrown	#BC8F8F	rgb(188, 143, 143)
tomato	#FF6347	rgb(255, 99, 71)
indianred	#CD5C5C	rgb(205, 92, 92)
red	#FF0000	rgb(255, 0, 0)
firebrick	#B22222	rgb(178, 34, 34)
brown	#A52A2A	rgb(165, 42, 42)
darkred	#8B0000	rgb(139, 0, 0)
maroon	#800000	rgb(128, 0, 0)

Oranges and browns

Hue 15 to 45. Most of the browns are dark oranges and sit here, saddlebrown and sienna among them. The keyword brown itself does not. 23 colors.

Oranges and browns: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
papayawhip	#FFEFD5	rgb(255, 239, 213)
antiquewhite	#FAEBD7	rgb(250, 235, 215)
blanchedalmond	#FFEBCD	rgb(255, 235, 205)
bisque	#FFE4C4	rgb(255, 228, 196)
peachpuff	#FFDAB9	rgb(255, 218, 185)
moccasin	#FFE4B5	rgb(255, 228, 181)
navajowhite	#FFDEAD	rgb(255, 222, 173)
wheat	#F5DEB3	rgb(245, 222, 179)
lightsalmon	#FFA07A	rgb(255, 160, 122)
burlywood	#DEB887	rgb(222, 184, 135)
darksalmon	#E9967A	rgb(233, 150, 122)
tan	#D2B48C	rgb(210, 180, 140)
sandybrown	#F4A460	rgb(244, 164, 96)
coral	#FF7F50	rgb(255, 127, 80)
peru	#CD853F	rgb(205, 133, 63)
darkorange	#FF8C00	rgb(255, 140, 0)
orange	#FFA500	rgb(255, 165, 0)
orangered	#FF4500	rgb(255, 69, 0)
goldenrod	#DAA520	rgb(218, 165, 32)
chocolate	#D2691E	rgb(210, 105, 30)
sienna	#A0522D	rgb(160, 82, 45)
darkgoldenrod	#B8860B	rgb(184, 134, 11)
saddlebrown	#8B4513	rgb(139, 69, 19)

Yellows

Hue 45 to 70 degrees. 11 colors.

Yellows: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
lightyellow	#FFFFE0	rgb(255, 255, 224)
cornsilk	#FFF8DC	rgb(255, 248, 220)
beige	#F5F5DC	rgb(245, 245, 220)
lemonchiffon	#FFFACD	rgb(255, 250, 205)
lightgoldenrodyellow	#FAFAD2	rgb(250, 250, 210)
palegoldenrod	#EEE8AA	rgb(238, 232, 170)
khaki	#F0E68C	rgb(240, 230, 140)
darkkhaki	#BDB76B	rgb(189, 183, 107)
gold	#FFD700	rgb(255, 215, 0)
yellow	#FFFF00	rgb(255, 255, 0)
olive	#808000	rgb(128, 128, 0)

Greens

Hue 70 to 165 degrees. 21 colors.

Greens: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
honeydew	#F0FFF0	rgb(240, 255, 240)
palegreen	#98FB98	rgb(152, 251, 152)
aquamarine	#7FFFD4	rgb(127, 255, 212)
lightgreen	#90EE90	rgb(144, 238, 144)
darkseagreen	#8FBC8F	rgb(143, 188, 143)
mediumaquamarine	#66CDAA	rgb(102, 205, 170)
greenyellow	#ADFF2F	rgb(173, 255, 47)
chartreuse	#7FFF00	rgb(127, 255, 0)
lime	#00FF00	rgb(0, 255, 0)
limegreen	#32CD32	rgb(50, 205, 50)
springgreen	#00FF7F	rgb(0, 255, 127)
yellowgreen	#9ACD32	rgb(154, 205, 50)
lawngreen	#7CFC00	rgb(124, 252, 0)
mediumspringgreen	#00FA9A	rgb(0, 250, 154)
mediumseagreen	#3CB371	rgb(60, 179, 113)
seagreen	#2E8B57	rgb(46, 139, 87)
olivedrab	#6B8E23	rgb(107, 142, 35)
forestgreen	#228B22	rgb(34, 139, 34)
darkolivegreen	#556B2F	rgb(85, 107, 47)
green	#008000	rgb(0, 128, 0)
darkgreen	#006400	rgb(0, 100, 0)

Cyans and teals

Hue 165 to 200 degrees. 17 colors.

Cyans and teals: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
lightcyan	#E0FFFF	rgb(224, 255, 255)
paleturquoise	#AFEEEE	rgb(175, 238, 238)
powderblue	#B0E0E6	rgb(176, 224, 230)
lightblue	#ADD8E6	rgb(173, 216, 230)
skyblue	#87CEEB	rgb(135, 206, 235)
turquoise	#40E0D0	rgb(64, 224, 208)
mediumturquoise	#48D1CC	rgb(72, 209, 204)
aqua	#00FFFF	rgb(0, 255, 255)
cadetblue	#5F9EA0	rgb(95, 158, 160)
cyan	#00FFFF	rgb(0, 255, 255)
deepskyblue	#00BFFF	rgb(0, 191, 255)
darkturquoise	#00CED1	rgb(0, 206, 209)
lightseagreen	#20B2AA	rgb(32, 178, 170)
darkcyan	#008B8B	rgb(0, 139, 139)
darkslategray	#2F4F4F	rgb(47, 79, 79)
darkslategrey	#2F4F4F	rgb(47, 79, 79)
teal	#008080	rgb(0, 128, 128)

Blues

Hue 200 to 260 degrees. 19 colors.

Blues: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
lavender	#E6E6FA	rgb(230, 230, 250)
lightsteelblue	#B0C4DE	rgb(176, 196, 222)
lightskyblue	#87CEFA	rgb(135, 206, 250)
mediumslateblue	#7B68EE	rgb(123, 104, 238)
cornflowerblue	#6495ED	rgb(100, 149, 237)
slateblue	#6A5ACD	rgb(106, 90, 205)
royalblue	#4169E1	rgb(65, 105, 225)
dodgerblue	#1E90FF	rgb(30, 144, 255)
lightslategray	#778899	rgb(119, 136, 153)
lightslategrey	#778899	rgb(119, 136, 153)
blue	#0000FF	rgb(0, 0, 255)
slategray	#708090	rgb(112, 128, 144)
slategrey	#708090	rgb(112, 128, 144)
steelblue	#4682B4	rgb(70, 130, 180)
mediumblue	#0000CD	rgb(0, 0, 205)
darkslateblue	#483D8B	rgb(72, 61, 139)
darkblue	#00008B	rgb(0, 0, 139)
midnightblue	#191970	rgb(25, 25, 112)
navy	#000080	rgb(0, 0, 128)

Purples and magentas

Hue 260 to 305. Purple and magenta are the same hue exactly, 300 degrees, and differ only in lightness, so no boundary can separate them. 15 colors.

Purples and magentas: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
thistle	#D8BFD8	rgb(216, 191, 216)
plum	#DDA0DD	rgb(221, 160, 221)
violet	#EE82EE	rgb(238, 130, 238)
mediumpurple	#9370DB	rgb(147, 112, 219)
orchid	#DA70D6	rgb(218, 112, 214)
mediumorchid	#BA55D3	rgb(186, 85, 211)
blueviolet	#8A2BE2	rgb(138, 43, 226)
darkorchid	#9932CC	rgb(153, 50, 204)
fuchsia	#FF00FF	rgb(255, 0, 255)
magenta	#FF00FF	rgb(255, 0, 255)
darkviolet	#9400D3	rgb(148, 0, 211)
rebeccapurple	#663399	rgb(102, 51, 153)
darkmagenta	#8B008B	rgb(139, 0, 139)
indigo	#4B0082	rgb(75, 0, 130)
purple	#800080	rgb(128, 0, 128)

Pinks

Hue 305 to 355 degrees. 7 colors.

Pinks: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
pink	#FFC0CB	rgb(255, 192, 203)
lightpink	#FFB6C1	rgb(255, 182, 193)
hotpink	#FF69B4	rgb(255, 105, 180)
palevioletred	#DB7093	rgb(219, 112, 147)
deeppink	#FF1493	rgb(255, 20, 147)
crimson	#DC143C	rgb(220, 20, 60)
mediumvioletred	#C71585	rgb(199, 21, 133)

Whites, grays and blacks

The true neutrals and the whites with a hint of something in them, where a hue angle stops meaning much. 24 colors.

Whites, grays and blacks: every named color in this hue range, with its hex and RGB codes
Color name	Hex	RGB
white	#FFFFFF	rgb(255, 255, 255)
ghostwhite	#F8F8FF	rgb(248, 248, 255)
snow	#FFFAFA	rgb(255, 250, 250)
mintcream	#F5FFFA	rgb(245, 255, 250)
aliceblue	#F0F8FF	rgb(240, 248, 255)
azure	#F0FFFF	rgb(240, 255, 255)
floralwhite	#FFFAF0	rgb(255, 250, 240)
ivory	#FFFFF0	rgb(255, 255, 240)
lavenderblush	#FFF0F5	rgb(255, 240, 245)
seashell	#FFF5EE	rgb(255, 245, 238)
whitesmoke	#F5F5F5	rgb(245, 245, 245)
oldlace	#FDF5E6	rgb(253, 245, 230)
linen	#FAF0E6	rgb(250, 240, 230)
gainsboro	#DCDCDC	rgb(220, 220, 220)
lightgray	#D3D3D3	rgb(211, 211, 211)
lightgrey	#D3D3D3	rgb(211, 211, 211)
silver	#C0C0C0	rgb(192, 192, 192)
darkgray	#A9A9A9	rgb(169, 169, 169)
darkgrey	#A9A9A9	rgb(169, 169, 169)
gray	#808080	rgb(128, 128, 128)
grey	#808080	rgb(128, 128, 128)
dimgray	#696969	rgb(105, 105, 105)
dimgrey	#696969	rgb(105, 105, 105)
black	#000000	rgb(0, 0, 0)

Colors you can write as a word

A browser recognizes 148 color names, covering 139 distinct colors, because nine of the names are exact duplicates of another. Names are readable and impossible to mistype silently, since an unrecognized one is ignored rather than rendering something wrong. They are also a narrow palette with no system behind it, which is what the other three notations are for.

red
orange
gold
olive
lime
teal
navy
indigo
orchid
crimson
salmon
khaki
plum
tan
rebeccapurple

See all 148 color names, with hex, RGB and HSL for each

Common questions

Are HTML color codes and CSS color codes the same thing?: In practice, yes. Color is set by CSS rather than by HTML, and has been for a long time, but HTML color code is the phrase almost everybody uses and searches for. The values are identical either way: the same hex, RGB, HSL and names apply whether you write them in a style attribute, a stylesheet, or a framework class.
What is a hex color code?: A hex code is six hexadecimal digits, two each for red, green and blue, from 00 to FF. #7A5CFF is 122 red, 92 green and 255 blue. Hexadecimal counts 0 to 9 then A to F, so FF is 255, the largest a single channel goes. The hash is part of the value and CSS will not read it without one.
How many HTML colors are there?: 16,777,216, which is 256 values for each of the three channels. Only 139 of them have a name a browser recognizes, which is why hex, RGB and HSL exist: they reach every color, and the names reach 139.
What are the 16 original HTML colors?: White, silver, gray, black, red, maroon, yellow, olive, lime, green, aqua, teal, blue, navy, fuchsia and purple. They came from the VGA palette and were the only colors HTML 4.01 named. Everything else a browser recognizes today arrived later, from X11 by way of SVG.
Should I use hex, RGB or HSL?: Hex for anything you paste from a design tool, which is most of the time. RGB when you are working with a value in code, since the channels are plain decimal numbers. HSL when you want to adjust a color by hand rather than replace it: drop the lightness and you have the same color, darker, which neither of the other two lets you do without a calculator.
What is the difference between #RGB, #RRGGBB and #RRGGBBAA?: Three digits is shorthand: each one is doubled, so #F0A means #FF00AA. Six is the ordinary form. Eight adds two more digits of alpha, from 00 for fully transparent to FF for fully opaque, so #FF000080 is red at about half. Four digits is the shorthand of the eight-digit form. All four are valid CSS and every current browser reads them.
How do I use a color code in HTML?: Through CSS, either in a stylesheet or in a style attribute on the element. color sets the text, background-color sets the panel behind it and border-color sets the outline. The old bgcolor and text attributes still work in most browsers but were removed from the standard, and they only ever understood the original sixteen names.

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