Comments on: What are web safe “hex” colors? (Plus an HTML color chart!)

By: Fluxx

Fluxx — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:50:26 +0000

Hi,

Very good post for beginners. Bravochild is correct. Just as binary code (which computers read) is based on the number 2 (hence binary), hexadecimal code is based on the number 16. Because each digit in hexadecimal has 16 different options, as opposed to two, hexadecimal can contain the same info as binary, but in a smaller space. If you tried to code colors in binary, you’d have a very long character string. Instead, we code colors in hexadecimal, then let the computer translate to binary.

By: X

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:09:20 +0000

Thanks. This is really clear. It’s nice that somebody took the time to do this.

By: bravochild

bravochild — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:03:41 +0000

Thanks for the info, just starting to build my first website. Nice to have a hand to hold when
first walking the road of jagged pixels.
Chart is very useful :0)
On the definition though – I think the reason it’s called hexadecimal is that it is a number system having a base of 16; hex=6 decimal=10. Just thought you might be interested…

By: Amber

Amber — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:21:45 +0000

Thanks for clearing that up. I really like the fact that I don’t have to remember the hex color codes. Also, that I don’t have to stick to using only the web safe HTML colors!

PS: Love the blog!