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Color modes

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» 2. RGB (Hex notation)

Hexadecimal values

In the previous page of this tutorial we discussed how to represent colors using numbers from 0 to 255 to indicate the value of each RGB primary color. Well, somebody some day decided that a better way to do it was using hexadecimal values instead.

What is Hexadecimal base notation?

I am not going to explain it in depth, let's just say it is a way of representing values from 0 to 255 using the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to F.

Here is a conversion table between decimal and hexadecimal values:

Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex	Dec	Hex
0	00	1	01	2	02	3	03	4	04	5	05	6	06	7	07	8	08	9	09
10	0A	11	0B	12	0C	13	0D	14	0E	15	0F	16	10	17	11	18	12	19	13
20	14	21	15	22	16	23	17	24	18	25	19	26	1A	27	1B	28	1C	29	1D
30	1E	31	1F	32	20	33	21	34	22	35	23	36	24	37	25	38	26	39	27
40	28	41	29	42	2A	43	2B	44	2C	45	2D	46	2E	47	2F	48	30	49	31
50	32	51	33	52	34	53	35	54	36	55	37	56	38	57	39	58	3A	59	3B
60	3C	61	3D	62	3E	63	3F	64	40	65	41	66	42	67	43	68	44	69	45
70	46	71	47	72	48	73	49	74	4A	75	4B	76	4C	77	4D	78	4E	79	4F
80	50	81	51	82	52	83	53	84	54	85	55	86	56	87	57	88	58	89	59
90	5A	91	5B	92	5C	93	5D	94	5E	95	5F	96	60	97	61	98	62	99	63
100	64	101	65	102	66	103	67	104	68	105	69	106	6A	107	6B	108	6C	109	6D
110	6E	111	6F	112	70	113	71	114	72	115	73	116	74	117	75	118	76	119	77
120	78	121	79	122	7A	123	7B	124	7C	125	7D	126	7E	127	7F	128	80	129	81
130	82	131	83	132	84	133	85	134	86	135	87	136	88	137	89	138	8A	139	8B
140	8C	141	8D	142	8E	143	8F	144	90	145	91	146	92	147	93	148	94	149	95
150	96	151	97	152	98	153	99	154	9A	155	9B	156	9C	157	9D	158	9E	159	9F
160	A0	161	A1	162	A2	163	A3	164	A4	165	A5	166	A6	167	A7	168	A8	169	A9
170	AA	171	AB	172	AC	173	AD	174	AE	175	AF	176	B0	177	B1	178	B2	179	B3
180	B4	181	B5	182	B6	183	B7	184	B8	185	B9	186	BA	187	BB	188	BC	189	BD
190	BE	191	BF	192	C0	193	C1	194	C2	195	C3	196	C4	197	C5	198	C6	199	C7
200	C8	201	C9	202	CA	203	CB	204	CC	205	CD	206	CE	207	CF	208	D0	209	D1
210	D2	211	D3	212	D4	213	D5	214	D6	215	D7	216	D8	217	D9	218	DA	219	DB
220	DC	221	DD	222	DE	223	DF	224	E0	225	E1	226	E2	227	E3	228	E4	229	E5
230	E6	231	E7	232	E8	233	E9	234	EA	235	EB	236	EC	237	ED	238	EE	239	EF
240	F0	241	F1	242	F2	243	F3	244	F4	245	F5	246	F6	247	F7	248	F8	249	F9
250	FA	251	FB	252	FC	253	FD	254	FE	255	FF

Using hex notation to represent colors

Using hexadecimal notation to represent RGB color combinations, is in fact, less space consuming than doing it with regular decimal values. You just have to write the number sign (#) followed by the RGB values in hexadecimal pairs. See the examples below:
#E3875A

Hex RGB	Decimal RGB	Resulting color
#FF0000	RGB(255,0,0)	Bright red
#00FF00	RGB(0,255,0)	Bright green
#0000FF	RGB(0,0,255)	Bright blue
#FFFFFF	RGB(255,255,255)	White
#000000	RGB(0,0,0)	Black
#C0C0C0	RGB(192,192,192)	Light gray
#A02080	RGB(160,32,128)	Purple