Hexadecimal...?

Hexadecimal color values aren't as complicated as they look. They're just a compact way of describing colors.

Each color is made up of three values: one for the amount of red in the color, one for the amount of green, and one for the amount of blue. (Computers make different colors by mixing red, green and blue light together on the screen.) If you've used any graphics tools like PhotoShop (or even MS Paint, for that matter), you're probably used to setting the RGB value for a color using numbers between 0 and 255. The hexadecimal color #99CCFF is just a compact way of saying: "set Red to 153, Green to 204, and Blue to 255."

Each pair of digits in the color represents either red, green or blue, in this pattern: #RRGGBB. (Two digits for red, then two digits for green, and then two digits for blue.) So what do the letters like FF and CC mean? Well, that's just hexadecimal, which is a compact way of writing numbers. Hexadecimal extends the regular decimal numbers (0-9) with six extra digits (A-F). So, if you were counting to 16 in hexadecimal, you would go: "0...9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10." Understanding hexadecimal is a bit technical, but all you need to know to make hexadecimal color values is that letters are bigger than numbers. ("A0" is bigger than "99", "DB" is bigger than "D7", etc.) In #RRGGBB notation, bigger values mean "more of that color." FF is the biggest value you can have, so #FF0000 means "100% red, 0% green, 0% blue." #FFFFFF is white (100% red, green and blue), and #000000 is black (no red, green or blue light at all).

As for the number sign (#) in front, it simply indicates that hexadecimal numbers are being used - kind of like how a dollar sign ($) lets you know that $5.24 means five dollars and 24 cents.



Hexadecimal...? Hexadecimal color values aren't as complicated as they look. They're just a compact way of describing colors. Each color is made up of three values: one for the amount of red in the color, one for the amount of green, and one for the amount of blue. (Computers make different colors by mixing red, green and blue light together on the screen.) If you've used any graphics tools like PhotoShop (or even MS Paint, for that matter), you're probably used to setting the RGB value for a color using numbers between 0 and 255. The hexadecimal color #99CCFF is just a compact way of saying: "set Red to 153, Green to 204, and Blue to 255." Each pair of digits in the color represents either red, green or blue, in this pattern: #RRGGBB. (Two digits for red, then two digits for green, and then two digits for blue.) So what do the letters like FF and CC mean? Well, that's just hexadecimal, which is a compact way of writing numbers. Hexadecimal extends the regular decimal numbers (0-9) with six extra digits (A-F). So, if you were counting to 16 in hexadecimal, you would go: "0...9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10." Understanding hexadecimal is a bit technical, but all you need to know to make hexadecimal color values is that letters are bigger than numbers. ("A0" is bigger than "99", "DB" is bigger than "D7", etc.) In #RRGGBB notation, bigger values mean "more of that color." FF is the biggest value you can have, so #FF0000 means "100% red, 0% green, 0% blue." #FFFFFF is white (100% red, green and blue), and #000000 is black (no red, green or blue light at all). As for the number sign (#) in front, it simply indicates that hexadecimal numbers are being used - kind of like how a dollar sign ($) lets you know that $5.24 means five dollars and 24 cents.