Understanding Web Color Formats
Web designers and frontend developers constantly need to translate colors between different formats depending on the context of their CSS or design tools. Our color converter allows you to seamlessly switch between the three most dominant formats on the web.
HEX (Hexadecimal)
Hex codes are the most common way to represent colors in web design. They consist of a hash (#) followed by 6 characters (using numbers 0-9 and letters A-F). The characters are divided into three pairs representing Red, Green, and Blue. Example: #FF0000 is pure red.
RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
RGB represents colors through the combination of Red, Green, and Blue light. Each value ranges from 0 to 255. Example: rgb(255, 0, 0) is pure red. RGB is often used in CSS when developers need to add an alpha channel for transparency (RGBA).
HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)
HSL is the most intuitive format for humans to understand and manipulate.
- Hue: The degree on the color wheel (0-360). 0 is red, 120 is green, 240 is blue.
- Saturation: Percentage (0-100%). 0% is a shade of gray, 100% is the full color.
- Lightness: Percentage (0-100%). 0% is black, 50% is normal, 100% is white.
Modern UI frameworks heavily rely on HSL because it makes generating color palettes incredibly easy. To create a darker shade of your primary color on hover, you simply decrease the Lightness percentage while leaving Hue and Saturation alone.