In HTML, colors are displayed by the browser by using a combination of Red, Green, and Blue light. These colors are defined using a hexadecimal notation (HEX) for the combination of Red, Green, and Blue color values (RGB). An RGB color space can be understood by considering it as all possible colors that can be made from variants of red, green and blue. Consider the example of shining red, green, and blue lights together onto a white wall, each with dimmer switches. If only the blue light is on, the wall will look blue. If the red and green lights are on together, the wall will look yellow. Applying more intensity of one or more colors and less of another will produce different results. In the case of RGB, each color has a value of 0 to 255. Therefore, having 256 values for 3 colors, we can make a total of 16,777,216 different colors. When we express these colors using HEX notation, we use 2 digits for each color (#RRGGBB). In HEX notation, each digit holds up to 16 values, 0-F. Two digits (16 to the power of 2) provides us with the 256 values we need to represent each color. For example, to display a black color, the HEX value is #000000. To display a white color, the HEX value is #FFFFFF.

HTML Colors

Here is an example of the 16 basic colors defined in the HTML 4.01 specification (Section 6.5)

Color	Name	HEX	RGB
	White	#FFFFFF	255,255,255
	Silver	#C0C0C0	192,192,192
	Gray	#808080	128,128,128
	Black	#000000	0,0,0
	Red	#FF0000	255,0,0
	Maroon	#800000	128,0,0
	Yellow	#FFFF00	255,255,0
	Olive	#808000	128,128,0
	Lime	#00FF00	0,255,0
	Green	#008000	0,128,0
	Aqua	#00FFFF	0,255,255
	Teal	#008080	0,128,128
	Blue	#0000FF	0,0,255
	Navy	#000080	0,0,128
	Fuchsia	#FF00FF	255,0,255
	Purple	#800080	128,0,128

Color	HEX	RGB
	#000000	0,0,0
	#080808	8,8,8
	#101010	16,16,16
	#181818	24,24,24
	#202020	32,32,32
	#282828	40,40,40
	#303030	48,48,48
	#383838	56,56,56
	#404040	64,64,64
	#484848	72,72,72
	#505050	80,80,80
	#585858	88,88,88
	#606060	96,96,96
	#686868	104,104,104
	#707070	112,112,112
	#787878	120,120,120
	#808080	128,128,128
	#888888	136,136,136
	#909090	144,144,144
	#989898	152,152,152
	#A0A0A0	160,160,160
	#A8A8A8	168,168,168
	#B0B0B0	176,176,176
	#B8B8B8	184,184,184
	#C0C0C0	192,192,192
	#C8C8C8	200,200,200
	#D0D0D0	208,208,208
	#D8D8D8	216,216,216
	#E0E0E0	224,224,224
	#E8E8E8	232,232,232
	#F0F0F0	240,240,240
	#F8F8F8	248,248,248
	#FFFFFF	255,255,255

Notes on Using Colors

Although colors can add significant value to your web pages, consider the following when including color in your documents:

• The use of HTML elements and attributes for specifying color is deprecated. You should use style sheets (CSS) to assign colors to your elements.
• If you use a background image or set the background color, then be sure to set the text color as well.

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