Home Technology What is Hex Code Colours Function and How to Select Colours Without...

What is Hex Code Colours Function and How to Select Colours Without Using A Colour Picker

385
Hex Code

When you first start designing in colour, you’ll probably use a graphical interface to choose the colours you want to use before applying them to your page’s different elements. However, as you gain confidence in using HTML and begin to look at the code rather than just your graphical editor, you’ll find that the colours you choose are denoted by some odd-looking codes like #ff0000. Hex code is a crucial part of how HTML and CSS operate. Learning how they work will not only save you time, but will also improve the pace, elegance, and reliability of your code.

We’ll go over everything you need to know about hex colour codes and show you how to use them in your project in this guide.

What Does Hexadecimal Mean?

Let’s begin with the “hex” portion of the “hex colour code.” In this case, hex stands for “hexadecimal,” a number system of 16 simple numerals rather than the more common 10.

This is the number system used by HTML, as well as many other programming languages, and it is how colours are represented in the text.

Hexadecimal is a method of encoding a base 16 number scheme, as the name implies. Base 10 is our standard number scheme, which you’re probably familiar with. Hexadecimal uses the same numerals as the standard method for the first 10 numbers (so 0–9), then switches to letters for the numbers 10–15 are encoded using the letters A – F.

As a side note, the primary reason hexadecimal is used is that it has a natural link to the binary system that your machine uses at a more fundamental stage.

The power of two is widely used to express binary numbers, and 16 is 2^4. This simplifies the conversion between hexadecimal and binary (though we won’t do it today).

You don’t need to know this to use hex colour codes, but knowing it might help you impress someone.

What Components Make Up a Color?

Hex Code

Colours on a computer screen are made up of three elements, which correspond to the three colours found in each pixel. You can see them if you look very, really closely (or if you have an old screen) – red, green, and blue.

As a result, we determine how much light each of the red, green, and blue (RGB) sections of your pixels should emit when we encode colours. For example, an RGB value (a form of value used in a variety of software systems) could look something like this: RGB (255, 0, 0).

Since 255 is the highest value for a component, this value means that the first component (red, or R) should be at its highest level, while the other two should be at their lowest. And that will result in pure red (as you might have guessed).

(Incidentally, the reason 255 is the maximum value is due to the ease with which this value [or, more precisely, 256 including 0] can be used in binary.  256 is 2^8. But that’s yet another tidbit you don’t need to be aware of.)

Even at this stage, astute readers would have found that working with colours in this format is relatively easy. RGB values for black and white are (0,0,0) and (0,0,0), respectively (255,255,255). Is it possible to be green? RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB (0,255,0).

How to Read Hex Color Codes

Once you’ve mastered RGB, you should move on to learning how to read hex codes. Once you know the formula, it’s very easy. As previously stated, the numbers 1 through 9 are expressed numerically. For numbers greater than ten, letters are used instead of numbers. As a result, A=10, B=11, C=12, and so forth.

There are three simple steps to calculating the hexadecimal number (as mentioned above):

  1. Multiply the first number (or the letter’s transformed number) by 16.
  2. Multiply the second number (or the letter’s transformed number) by 1.
  3. Combine the two totals to get a single value.

The hexadecimal number for the number 83, for example, is 131. This is how we came to our decision:

  1. Multiply the number 8 in 83 by 16 (8×16=128).
  2. Multiplying the 3 in 83 by (3×1=3).
  3. Adding the two totals together (128+3=131)

Another way to think about it is as follows:

(8×16) + (3×1) = 131

It’s the same idea when working with letters. For example, FF = 255 is the result of multiplying the number corresponding to F (15) by 16, and then multiplying the number corresponding to the second F (15) by 1. Then add the two totals together to get 255. Recognize that 255 corresponds to the bright red RGB number 255.

Use an RGB to HEX conversion tool if you don’t want to do the math yourself.

Predicting Colors

You’ll be able to predict what colour would look like based on the strength of red, green, and/or blue values if you’ve mastered the numbers. So, if you know that the maximum Red without green or blue is #FF0000, you can mentally change the values to get a colour estimate.

How Hex Colors Work

Hex Code

We can look at a real hex colour code now that we understand how colours function. Take #ff0000 as an example, and let’s use what we’ve learned so far to figure out what it implies. You’ll note that “FF” is equal to “255” in base-10 encoding if you look at your hexadecimal table. This should be a warning sign. The first two characters of this (and all) hex colour code refer to the red component, which in this case has a value of 255. The green component is represented by the second and third characters, while the blue component is represented by the fourth and fifth characters.

From here, you can figure out what colour #ff0000 corresponds to – it’s the same as RGB (255,0,0). That is the colour red in its purest form. Similarly, #ff00ff shows full red and blue at the same time, resulting in magenta: You may be starting to see the value and elegance of hex colour codes at this stage. Any possible colour can be represented using just 6 digits because they use hexadecimal and because 255 is the maximum value for a component.

Since each component can take on any value between 0 and 255, this framework also allows for a wide variety of colours. When you calculate the number of potential colour combinations, you’ll discover that there are 16,777,216 options.

How to Use Hex Code Abbreviations

Since you now know how to use hex colour codes instead of a graphical interface’s colour picker, you should start using them in your web projects. Before we go any further, it’s important to note that these two options aren’t the only ones available to you.

HTML requires you to use abbreviated hex codes since it was planned to be user-friendly. The hex code for red is #FF0000, which can be simplified to #F00. That is, red is represented by one digit, green by one digit, and blue by one digit. #FF0000 and #F00 will be interpreted by browsers as the same colour.

This brings the total number of colour options down to about 4,000. It does, however, have other benefits. Encoding your colours with abbreviations will boost the efficiency of your web pages, much like using shorthand to optimize CSS delivery. When dealing with small pages, this may not be noticeable, but it can have a huge effect as the projects become more complex.

How to Use Your Own Hex Codes

Hex Code

At this stage, you should be able to use hex codes instead of your web design software’s colour picker. Most web builders will let you enter a hex code instead of clicking a colour with your mouse, and there are many benefits to doing so. One advantage is that it is simpler to keep track of which colours are being used. When using a colour picker to create a template, it’s simple to use a colour that’s very similar to, and therefore almost indistinguishable from, the one you like.

This means that your pages will be in two identical but distinct shades of red before you know it. When you use a hex code, you’ll still get the same colour. Second, hex codes give you a fine degree of control over your colours that a colour picker cannot provide. When using HTML, no colour picker can contain all 16 million colours available, but you can increment the shades available to you one value at a time by writing your own colour codes.

Third, knowing how colours appear on a computer screen is crucial when designing web pages or any piece of software. You can start using hex codes to mix colours to ensure that the colour you want to view is the one that appears on your users’ screens with only a little understanding of how your devices perceive code and display colours.

Also Read:- How to Change Name Colour in Discord

Conclusion

Though experimenting with hex colour codes in HTML can be entertaining, it also serves a practical purpose. Since almost all image processing software uses the same encoding, understanding how hex colour codes work is a useful and fundamental skill to have.

You’ll be able to better predict what colour you’ll see if you know what the numbers in hex colour codes mean. There isn’t much of a difference when using a hexadecimal or RGB colour, except that in CSS, you can also add an alpha value, making it an RGBA colour. If you want to monitor the opacity of a colour, this can be extremely useful. One of the simplest ways to adjust opacity is to add an alpha value to your RGB.

We’ve tried to cover everything you need to know about The Hex Code Color in this article. I believe you have a good understanding of it. Even, if you have any doubts, please leave a comment below.