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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