Working in the Color Playground

Colors are generally defined for web pages in terms of the hexadecimal system.^* The sixteen numbers in this system are: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F. Colors are defined in terms of pairs of numbers assigned to red, green, and blue (RGB). Thus, red is FF0000 (think: FF 00 00), and blue is 0000FF (green is more complicated). At one extreme white is all colors at their fullest extent (FFFFFF) and black is the complete absence of color: (000000). The system allows over 16 million colors.

Netscape has designated certain color names to go with certain hex determinations.^** These cover many of the widely known colors, and a table of these values is produced on the accompanying pages. You can generally use the names with the same effect as the hex figures, but the figures are more reliable. If you use a name remember that Light Steel Blue translates as lightsteelblue for the computer. If using the figures, the preceding number symbol # is required by some browsers.

Turning to the boxes on the accompanying pages, the first set of boxes allows the viewer to change the value of the background or the text in two ways. First you can click on the red, green or blue buttons to alter the first, second, or third hex sets respectively. A pop-up screen will appear. After you change the value as desired (without the # in this case), the text or background will change immediately. Second, you can change the values of the red, blue, or green hex sets by clicking on the left and right (up and down) arrows under each set. Changing colors by this means is a slow process, but you will see the text or background change gradually as you move in one or another direction.

You may also directly enter a Netscape color for background or text in the next set of boxes (being sure the # precedes). Text or background will change immediately. You may wish to combine the two approaches by first selecting a Netscape color lower down on the page (using the number preferably), then using the first set of boxes to change to this number, and then varying the color more finely.

Another way to work with the table is to use your mouse directly on the separate boxes in the color charts. If you move it over the name of the color, the background of the page will change; if you move it off, the background will change back. If you click the hex number in each box the text color will change everywhere. If you then double click the hex number, the previous color will be established.

There is also RESET buttons (in two colors to avoid their disappearance) for background and text respectively. They work regardless of how you might have made changes.

As you have already noticed, the colors on the first page are presented in alphabetical order. The second, color groups, page repeats the first page, but places the Netscape colors in color groups. Here you can choose to move to a particular group by clicking on the small boxes just above the chart. You can then move back to the top of the chart by clicking on the color name above each color group.

If Javascript is turned off in your browser, these pages will not work. This is easy to turn on in most browsers — look under preferences or options. (You can change it back afterwards if you prefer.) Older Netscape versions, such as 4.77, also do not work properly. 4.77 will, however, show you the color tables and allow you to change backgrounds through use of the boxes on the upper left of the main pages.

Enjoy, and many happy pages!

^*Note: Working with hexadecimal numbers. Hexadecimal numbers (base 16) are used in programming because they more easily translate into the binary system that computers actually use. 0 to 9 are the same in both decimal and hexadecimal systems, but decimal 10 = A and decimal 15 = F in hex. Since the base is 16 rather than 10, 16 in decimal becomes 10 in hex, 17 is 11 etc. 31 will be 1F, while 32 is 20. 100 becomes 64 ((6 x 16)+4), and FF equals 255 ((16 X 15) + 15). Working with the pairs for each base color group, if we take the example of pure red at FF0000, we should note that EE0000 will be a somewhat darker red (moving toward the 000000 for black). Now as one goes down this scale, AA0000 will be even darker. Making the scale finer, the color darkens as one moves through the series AC, AB, AA, A9, A8, down to A0, and then 9F etc.

^**Note: Netscape and other colors. The original Netscape colors have been slightly augmented here by adding certain well-known colors such as "brown ochre". (The non-Netscape colors are asterisked — you cannot enter the name for such colors.) It is hoped that more colors can be added in the future whenever we are able to establish the relationship between additional color names and their hexadecimal equivalents. The visitor will note that some of the Netscape color designations seem perverse (for example, "dark gray" is actually lighter than "gray"). We are simply sticking to the relationships that we have been given.

Most of the colors will be rendered correctly by browsers and more or less correctly by printers. A so-called "browser safe palette" restricted to 216 colors is sometimes suggested. This sticks to a simpler palette of hex values (00, 33, 66, 99, CC and FF). Using these limitations, the next values going away from pure white (FFFFFF) would be CCFFFF, FFCCFF or FFFFCC. We doubt that this restriction is any longer necessary.