Hexadecimal Colors - CSS Colors | CSS: Presentation Layer

Standards Based Development

The # declares that the color is hexadecimal, the other six digits (or three) are really three sets of pairs, 0-9, and a-f. Each pair controls one primary additive color. Hex numbers are strings full of patterns:

• 00 is a lack of primary
• ff is primary at full strength.
• #000 is black, no primaries
• #fff is white, all primaries.

We can build on these patterns to find additive and subtractive colors:

• #000 is black, starting point
• #f00 is the brightest red
• #0f0 is the brightest green
• #00f is the brightest blue

Subtractive colors start with white; we can find subtractive primaries by changing each pair to 00:

• #fff is white, starting point
• #0ff is the brightest cyan
• #f0f is the brightest magenta
• #ff0 is the brightest yellow

No primaries means no color; All primaries means all color.

Shades

Treat hex colors with increments of ten; adding one to each of the left-hand character of each pair, the color's brightness is raised, while its saturation is lowered.

The Code Side of Color