

- #HOW WRITING IN HEX WORKS HOW TO#
- #HOW WRITING IN HEX WORKS SOFTWARE#
- #HOW WRITING IN HEX WORKS CODE#
And that will give us (you’ve guessed it) pure red.
#HOW WRITING IN HEX WORKS SOFTWARE#
So, for instance, an RGB value (a type of value used in many different software systems) might look like this: RGB (255, 0, 0).Ģ55 is the maximum value for a component, and so this value indicates that the first component (red, or R) should be at maximum, and the other two should be at minimum. SourceĪs a consequence, the way that we encode colors is to specify how much light each of the red, green, and blue (RGB) parts of your pixels should give out. If you look really, really closely (or you have an ancient screen) you’ll be able to see them – red, green, and blue. How do we use the hexadecimal system to encode colors in RGB?Ĭolors that are displayed on a computer screen are made up of three components, which correspond to the three colors that are present in each pixel of your screen. You don’t need to know this to use hex color codes, but it might come in handy the next time you want to impress someone. This makes it easy to convert between hexadecimal and binary (though we won’t be doing that today). Hexadecimal uses the same numerals as the regular system for the first 10 numbers (so 0 – 9) and then swaps to letters, so the numbers 10 – 15 are encoded using the letters A – F.Īs an interesting aside, the primary reason that hexadecimal is used is because it possesses a natural link to the binary system that is used by your computer at a more basic level.īinary numbers are commonly expressed as a power of 2, and 16 is 2^4.

Decimal, our regular number system you're already familiar with, is base 10. Hexadecimal, as the name suggests, is a way of encoding a base 16 number system. This is the number system used by HTML, and many other programming languages for that matter, and so it is the way in which colors are recorded in the language. Hex, in this context, stands for “hexadecimal”, a number system in which there are 16 basic numerals, rather than the more familiar 10. What Does Hexadecimal Mean?įirst, let’s look at the “hex” part of the term “hex color code”.
#HOW WRITING IN HEX WORKS HOW TO#
In this guide, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about hex color codes, and show you how to use them in your own project.
#HOW WRITING IN HEX WORKS CODE#
Learning how they function will not only save you a lot of time, it will also make your code faster, more elegant, and more reliable. These codes are called Hex color codes, and they are a fundamental part of the way that both HTML and CSS work. When you first start out designing in color, you’ll likely be using some kind of graphical interface to choose the colors you want to use before you apply them to the various elements in your page.Īs you grow more confident in using HTML, though, and as you start to look at the code itself rather than just your graphical editor, you will notice that the colors you pick are denoted by some strange looking codes such as #ff0000. This is particularly true if – as many people do – you learn to code using HTML to design web pages. No matter what kind of coding project you are undertaking, chances are that at some point you’re going to start working with colors.
