Web colors

Web colors are <a href="/facts/Color/a1QSEJhj">colors</a> used in <a href="/facts/Web_design/1uNCN7qE">displaying web pages</a> on the <a href="/facts/World_Wide_Web/wvnTrWFq">World Wide Web</a>; they can be described by way of three methods: a color may be specified as an <a href="/facts/RGB_color_model/3Be0zwCj">RGB</a> triplet, in <a href="/facts/Hexadecimal/02ohQW22">hexadecimal</a> format (a hex triplet) or according to its common English name in some cases. A <a href="/facts/Color_tool/VqJ9Ieax">color tool</a> or other <a href="/facts/Graphics_software/81h9n4M2">graphics software</a> is often used to generate color values. In some uses, hexadecimal color codes are specified with notation using a leading <a href="/facts/Number_sign/bHYCsWs1">number sign</a> (#). A color is specified according to the intensity of its red, green and blue components, each represented by eight <a href="/facts/Bit/RwfjaYSv">bits</a>. Thus, there are 24 bits used to specify a web color within the <a href="/facts/SRGB/Hsfl1GuK">sRGB</a> gamut, and 16,777,216 colors that may be so specified.
Colors outside the sRGB gamut can be specified in <a href="/facts/CSS/tA90XBQo">Cascading Style Sheets</a> by making one or more of the red, green and blue components negative or greater than 100%, so the color space is theoretically an unbounded extrapolation of sRGB similar to <a href="/facts/ScRGB/zyKC3n3R">scRGB</a>. Specifying a non-sRGB color this way requires the RGB() function call. It is impossible with the hexadecimal syntax (and thus impossible in legacy <a href="/facts/HTML/sSc3fT78">HTML</a> documents that do not use CSS).
The first versions of <a href="/facts/Mosaic_(web_browser)/qrA52r1E">Mosaic</a> and <a href="/facts/Netscape_Navigator/f9m231Wp">Netscape Navigator</a> used the <a href="/facts/X11_color_names/xXBtPgSa">X11 color names</a> as the basis for their color lists, as both started as <a href="/facts/X_Window_System/ac2vRIQL">X Window System</a> applications.
Web colors have an unambiguous colorimetric definition, <a href="/facts/SRGB/Hsfl1GuK">sRGB</a>, which relates the <a href="/facts/Chromaticity/eMDuJLsk">chromaticities</a> of a particular <a href="/facts/Phosphor/vTLjrGDE">phosphor</a> set, a given transfer curve, adaptive whitepoint, and viewing conditions. These have been chosen to be similar to many real-world <a href="/facts/Computer_monitor/NRaTDFHc">monitors</a> and viewing conditions, to allow rendering to be fairly close to the specified values even without <a href="/facts/Color_management/4PtNuCee">color management</a>. <a href="/facts/User_agent/dFEyg2Xj">User agents</a> vary in the fidelity with which they represent the specified colors. More advanced user agents use color management to provide better color fidelity; this is particularly important for <a href="/facts/Web-to-print/A3NExnjA">Web-to-print</a> applications.

Web colors open-in-new

Web colors