HTML Colors

In HTML, colors are specified using hexadecimal values. Hexadecimal values are a combination of letters and numbers, preceeded with a hash (#). For example, #ffff66 is a hexadecimal value. This might look a little intimidating at first, but you will soon get used to it.

You also have an option of using a color name instead of the hexadecimal value. An example of a color name is blue. Only 16 color names are supported by the HTML 4.0 standard. Hexadecimal, on the other hand, provides you with thousands more options. Therefore, if you need to use a color not specified by a color name, you will need to use the hexadecimal value.

In the original specification for HTML, colors were specified using the color attribute (for foreground colors) and bgcolor (for background colors). These attributes have now been deprecated by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), so you should avoid using them.

Colors are now specified using the style attribute, in conjunction with the color property or, as we saw in the previous lesson, the background-color property.

Color Names

As mentioned, there are 16 color names. The chart below shows these names and their corresponding hexadecimal value.

Example of Color Usage

This results in:

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