If we start increasing the first character, we add red to the colour. For example, the colour #f70 indicates a lot of red, a medium amount of green, and no blue (or #F70: case doesn't matter in these colour codes).īased on this, we can guess that #000 is very dark: it is the colour code for black. The three primary colours are specified in the order red, green, blue, prefixed with a #. The f end is a lot of the colour (bright/on). The 0 end of the scale is little of the colour (dark/off). The amount of each primary colour is specified with a character on this scale: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, a, b, c, d, e, f We will use the three-character method of specifying a CSS colour. To mix light to produce a colour on the screen, we will have to mix various amounts of red, green, and blue to get the desired result. Additive colour is also called the RGB colour model. The primary colours in the additive colour model are red, green, and blue. Computer screens start black, and light is added to produce a colour, using the additive colour model. However, paints and computer screens create colours differently. Since the paint removes parts of the reflected light, this is also referred to as the subtractive colour model. With paint, the coloured surface absorbs parts of the (usually white) light that illuminates it. Paints and dyes are mixed with the primary colours cyan (blue), yellow, and magenta (red) in the CYM colour model. If you've ever mixed colours together, you've probably done it with paint. Does this look white to you?, Physics Girl video on how colours work. About Coloursīefore we start giving numeric colour values, you should know at least a little about how colour works. There are some built-in words in CSS that can be used to specify a colour, like red and lavender, but they are quite limiting since you're restricted to the colours that happen to have been assigned words.

We have seen a few places where we need to speficy a colour in CSS: the text colour and background colour for content ( color and background-color), the colour of a border ( border-color or in the border shorthand property).

Css color codes for black