The <body> tag has following attributes which can be used to set different colors:
bgcolor: Sets a color for the background of the page.
text: Sets a color for the body text.
alink: Sets a color for active links or selected links.
link: Sets a color for linked text.
vlink: Sets a color for visited links - that is, for linked text that you have already clicked on.
HTML Color Coding Methods
There are following three different methods to set colors in your web page:
Color names: You can specify color names directly like green, blue or red.
Hex codes: A six-digit code representing the amount of red, green, and blue that make up the color.
Color decimal or percentage values: This value is specified using the rgb( ) property.
Now we will see these coloring schemes one by one.
HTML Colors - Color Names
You can specify direct a color name to set text or background color. I have listed 16 basic color names that will validate with an HTML validator but there are over 200 different color names supported by Netscape and IE.
Standard 16 Colors
Here is the list of standard 16 Colors names.
| Black | Gray | Silver | White | ||||
| Yellow | Lime | Aqua | Fuchsia | ||||
| Red | Green | Blue | Purple | ||||
| Maroon | Olive | Navy | Teal |
HTML Colors - Hex Codes
A hexadecimal is a 6 digit representation of a color. The first two digits(RR) represent a red value, the next two are a green value(GG), and the last are the blue value(BB).
A hexadecimal value can be taken from any graphics software like Adobe Photoshop, Jasc Paintshop Pro or even using Advanced Paint Brush.
Each hexadecimal code will be preceded by a pound or hash sign #. Following are the examples to use Hexadecimal notation.
| Color | Color HEX |
|---|---|
| #000000 | |
| #FF0000 | |
| #00FF00 | |
| #0000FF | |
| #FFFF00 | |
| #00FFFF | |
| #FF00FF | |
| #C0C0C0 | |
| #FFFFFF |
HTML Colors - RGB Values
This color value is specified using the rgb( ) property. This property takes three values, one each for red, green, and blue. The value can be an integer between 0 and 255 or a percentage.
NOTE: All the browsers does not support rgb() property of color so it is recommended not to use it.
Following is the example to show few colors using RGB values.
| Color | Color RGB |
|---|---|
| rgb(0,0,0) | |
| rgb(255,0,0) | |
| rgb(0,255,0) | |
| rgb(0,0,255) | |
| rgb(255,255,0) | |
| rgb(0,255,255) | |
| rgb(255,0,255) | |
| rgb(192,192,192) | |
| rgb(255,255,255) |
