HTML: The Definitive Guide

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Color Names and Values
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F.2 Color Names

Unfortunately, determining the hexadecimal value for more esoteric colors like "papaya whip" or "navajo white" is very difficult. You can go crazy trying to adjust the RGB triple for a color to get the shade just right, especially when each adjustment requires loading a document into your browser to view the result.

To make life easier, the HTML 3.2 standard defines sixteen standard color names that can be used anywhere a numeric color value can be used. For example, you can make all visited links in the display magenta with the following attribute and value for the body tag:

<body vlink="magenta">

The color names and RGB values defined in the HTML 3.2 standard are:

aqua (#00FFFF) gray (#808080) navy (#000080) silver (#C0C0C0)
black (#000000) green (#008000) olive (#808000) teal (#008080)
blue (#0000FF) lime (#00FF00) purple (#800080) yellow (#FFFF00)
fuchsia (#FF00FF) maroon (#800000) red (#FF0000) white (#FFFFFF)

Netscape goes well beyond the HTML 3.2 standard and supports the several hundred color names defined for use in the X Window System. Note that these color names may contain no spaces; also, the word "gray" may be spelled "grey" in any color name.

Those colors marked with an asterisk (*) actually represent a family of colors numbered one through four. Thus, there are actually four variants of blue, named "blue1," "blue2," "blue3," and "blue4," along with plain old "blue." Blue1 is the lightest of the four; blue4 the darkest. The unnumbered color name is the same color as the first; thus, blue and blue1 are identical.

Finally, if all that isn't enough, there are one hundred variants of gray (and grey) numbered 1 through 100. "Gray1" is the darkest, "gray100" is the lightest, and "gray" is very close to "gray75."

The Netscape-supported colors are:

aliceblue darkturquoise lightseagreen palevioletred*
antiquewhite* darkviolet lightskyblue* papayawhip
aquamarine* deeppink* lightslateblue peachpuff*
azure* deepskyblue* lightslategray peru
beige dimgray lightsteelblue* pink*
bisque* dodgerblue* lightyellow* plum*
black firebrick* limegreen powderblue
blanchedalmond floralwhite linen purple*
blue* forestgreen magenta* red*
blueviolet gainsboro maroon* rosybrown*
brown* ghostwhite mediumaquamarine royalblue*
burlywood* gold* mediumblue saddlebrown
cadetblue* goldenrod* mediumorchid* salmon*
chartreuse* gray mediumpurple* sandybrown
chocolate* green* mediumseagreen seagreen*
coral* greenyellow mediumslateblue seashell*
cornflowerblue honeydew* mediumspringgreen sienna*
cornsilk* hotpink* mediumturquoise skyblue*
cyan* indianred* mediumvioletred slateblue*
darkblue ivory* midnightblue slategray*
darkcyan khaki* mintcream snow*
darkgoldenrod* lavender mistyrose* springgreen*
darkgray lavenderblush* moccasin steelblue*
darkgreen lawngreen navajowhite* tan*
darkkhaki lemonchiffon* navy thistle*
darkmagenta lightblue* navyblue tomato*
darkolivegreen* lightcoral oldlace turquoise*
darkorange* lightcyan* olivedrab* violet
darkorchid* lightgoldenrod* orange* violetred*
darkred lightgoldenrodyellow orangered* wheat*
darksalmon lightgray orchid* white
darkseagreen* lightgreen palegoldenrod whitesmoke
darkslateblue lightpink* palegreen* yellow*
darkslategray* lightsalmon* paleturquoise* yellowgreen


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