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Chapter 3: HTML and Colors
HTML provides you with control over the colors of items on your pages. There are two ways to specify a color.
The first and easiest is to simply use the color name. You can select from the following 16 keywords: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow. Of course you can use this technique only if you want one of these colors.
The second way, which allows specifying any color you want, is using Hex Codes. This is the preferred way to specify colors because it is universally understood and you'll never get stuck trying to find the name for that certain shade of blue.
To use this technique you need to understand how colors on a computer screen are created. Any color is a combination of the three additive primary colors red, green, and blue. This is why you will sometimes see computer colors referred to as RGB colors. In any given color, each of the three primary colors has a value ranging from 0 (none) to 255 (maximum), so any color can be represented by its RGB value of three numbers--and this is how you can specify colors for your Web page elements. There are three formats for doing this:
- Use the rgb(r, g, b) function where r, g, and b are numbers in the range 0-255 specifying the level of that primary color.
- Use the rgb(r%, g%, b%) function where r, g, and b are numbers in the range 0-100 specifying the level of that primary as a percentage of maximum.
- Use a hexadecimal (base 16) number in the form #RRGGBB where RR, GG, and BB are each a hexadecimal number in the range 00-FF (0-255 in decimal notation).
Table 3-1 shows some examples of colors using the rgb() function and hexadecimal notation. You can experiment with colors using your HTML editor and browser to see what different values look like.
Table 3-1. RGB and hexadecimal codes for some colors.
| Color | rgb() | Hexadecimal |
| Black | rgb(0,0,0) | #000000 |
| White | rgb(255,255,255) | #FFFFFF |
| Medium gray | rgb(153,153,153) | #999999 |
| Blue | rgb(0,0,255) | #0000FF |
| Red | rgb(255,0,0) | #FF0000 |
| Green | rgb(0,255,0) | #00FF00 |
| Yellow | rgb(255,255,0) | #FFFF00 |
| Purple | rgb(255,0,255) | #FF00FF |
| Light blue | rgb(51,255,255) | #33FFFF |
| Pink | rgb(255,51,153) | #FF3399 |
| Brown | rgb(153,51,0) | #993300 |
CoffeeCup Software started in a real Coffee House 1996. Our first program was the HTML Editor. Over the last 10 years we have created a lot more Web Design & Flash Software. Our philosophy has always been to create software and services so you can make better Websites. We are dedicated to helping you by offering extraordinary support so we can succeed together. Consider us a partner and a friend, because we really are about Fresh Software and Warm People.
