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The key to text and background colours on The Web, is mixing Red, Green and Blue.
Your choice is from 256 shades of each of these three colours blended together. Theoretically 16,777,216 available colours! (256 cubed)
Remember that you are mixing colours of light (rather than paint). The same rules apply to web pages, as apply to lighting designers for stage, TV screen or department store windows. All use the sytem known as RGB (red green blue)
The numbers used to represent colours are hexadecimal which uses 16 numbers where we are more used to 10. The hexadecimal system runs from 0 to 15 rather than 0 to 9. Letters are used for numbers 10 to 15 (a, b, c, d, e, f). In this system the lowest value is still 0 while the highest is f. For colours the numbers go in pairs, the first 2 being for Red, the middle 2 for Green and the last 2 for Blue.
The chart below makes the way colours work and blend on web pages easy to understand. And you can pick the ones you like, copy the hexadecimal number for your own pages. Just drag your mouse across the hexadecimal number (include the whole string) next to the colour you want for your background. Copy the selected number and paste it after the word body in the body tag.
For example Neon Blue is next
to the number #4d4dff, so you copy the whole string #4d4dff
and paste it after the word body using the attribute bgcolor
so your tag looks like <body bgcolor=#4d4dff>
For colour inside tables and table cells you can also use the same structure
eg
<td bgcolor=#4d4dff>
Take special note of the top 8 listings, and the grey shades at the bottom of this page. Nearly every monitor and video card combination will display these colors slightly differently.
Wonderful as these colours are, they won't look the same on every monitor/video card combination. So it's important to test your colour on Windows PC's as well as Macintosh.
However there are over 200 colours that are known as Web Safe because they they look much the same on Macintosh or Windows computers
Copy this page and experiment with web colours on your own.
| Colour | Hexadecimal |
| White | #ffffff |
| Black | #000000 |
| Red | #ff0000 |
| Green | #00ff00 |
| Blue | #0000ff |
| Magenta | #ff00ff |
| Cyan | #00ffff |
| Yellow | #ffff00 |
| Aquamarine | #70db93 |
| Baker's Chocolate | #5c3317 |
| Blue Violet | #9f5f9f |
| Brass | #b5a642 |
| Bright Gold | #d9d919 |
| Brown | #a62a2a |
| Bronze | #8c7853 |
| Bronze | #a67d3d |
| Cadet Blue | #5f9f9f |
| Cool Copper | #d98719 |
| Copper | #b87333 |
| Coral | #ff7f00 |
| Corn Flower Blue | #42426f |
| Dark Brown | #5c4033 |
| Dark Green | #2f4f2f |
| Dark Green Copper | #4a766e |
| Dark Olive Green | #4f4f2f |
| Dark Orchid | #9932cd |
| Dark Purple | #871f78 |
| Dark Slate Blue | #6b238e |
| Dark Tan | #97694f |
| Dark Turquoise | #7093db |
| Dark Wood | #855e42 |
| Dusty Rose | #856363 |
| Feldspar | #d19275 |
| Firebrick | #8e2323 |
| Forest Green | #238e23 |
| Gold | #cd7f32 |
| Goldenrod | #dbdb70 |
| Green Copper | #527f76 |
| Green Yellow | #93db70 |
| Hunter Green | #215e21 |
| Indian Red | #4e2f2f |
| Khaki | #9f9f5f |
| Light Blue | #c0d9d9 |
| Light Steel Blue | #8f8fbd |
| Light Wood | #e9c2a6 |
| Lime Green | #32cd32 |
| Mandarian Orange | #e47833 |
| Maroon | #8e236b |
| Medium Aquamarine | #32cd99 |
| Medium Blue | #3232cd |
| Medium Forest Green | #6b8e23 |
| Medium Goldenrod | #eaeaae |
| Medium Orchid | #9370db |
| Medium Sea Green | #426f42 |
| Medium Slate Blue | #7f00ff |
| Medium Spring Green | #7fff00 |
| Medium Turquoise | #70dbdb |
| Medium Violet Red | #db7093 |
| Medium Wood | #a68064 |
| Midnight Blue | #2f2f4f |
| Navy Blue | #23238e |
| Neon Blue | #4d4dff |
| Neon Pink | #ff6ec7 |
| New Midnight Blue | #00009c |
| New Tan | #ebc79e |
| Old Gold | #cfb53b |
| Orange | #ff7f00 |
| Orange Red | #ff2400 |
| Orchid | #db70db |
| Pale Green | #8fbc8f |
| Pink | #bc8f8f |
| Plum | #eaadea |
| Quartz | #d9d9f3 |
| Rich Blue | #5959ab |
| Salmon | #6f4242 |
| Scarlet | #8c1717 |
| Sea Green | #238e68 |
| Sweet Milo | #6b4226 |
| Sienna | #8e6b23 |
| Silver | #e6e8fa |
| Sky Blue | #3299cc |
| Slate Blue | #007fff |
| Spicy Pink | #ff1cae |
| Spring Green | #00ff7f |
| Steel Blue | #236b8e |
| Summer Sky | #38b0de |
| Tan | #db9370 |
| Thistle | #d8bfd8 |
| Turquoise | #adeaea |
| Very Dark Brown | #5c4033 |
| Violet | #4f2f4f |
| Violet Red | #cc3299 |
| Wheat | #d8d8bf |
| Yellow Green | #99cc32 |
| This is Black | #000000 |
| Yet another Grey | #111111 |
| Yet another Grey | #222222 |
| Yet another Grey | #333333 |
| Yet another Grey | #444444 |
| Yet another Grey | #555555 |
| Yet another Grey | #666666 |
| Yet another Grey | #777777 |
| Yet another Grey | #888888 |
| Yet another Grey | #999999 |
| Yet another Grey | #aaaaaa |
| Yet another Grey | #bbbbbb |
| Yet another Grey | #cccccc |
| Yet another Grey | #dddddd |
| Yet another Grey | #eeeeee |
| This is White | #ffffff |
| Grey | #999999 |
| Grey With A Little Red | #aa99999 |
| Grey With A Little Green | #99aa99 |
| Grey With A Little Blue | #99999aa |
| Grey Again | #999999 |
| Grey With Some More Red | #aa9999 |
| Grey With Some More Green | #99aa99 |
| Grey With Some More Blue | #9999aa |
| Grey | #999999 |
| Grey With Colour Safe Red | #cc9999 |
| Grey With Colour Safe Green | #99cc99 |
| Light Grey With Colour Safe Blue | #9999cc |
| Grey | #999999 |
| Grey With A Little Red | #aa9999 |
| Grey With Some More Red | #bb9999 |
| Grey With Colour Safe Red | #cc9999 |
| Light Grey With Colour Safe Red | #ffcccc |
| Grey | #999999 |
| Grey With A Little Green | #99aa99 |
| Grey With Some More Green | #99bb99 |
| Grey With Colour Safe Green | #99cc99 |
| Light Grey With Colour Safe Green | #ccccff |
| Grey | #999999 |
| Grey With A Little Blue | #9999aa |
| Grey With Some More Blue | #9999bb |
| Grey With Colour Safe Blue | #9999cc |
| Light Grey With Colour Safe Blue | #ccccff |