Discuss the use of hex codes and RGB triplets for defining color.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Graphic artists and other professionals who work with color use color theory to blend colors to make just the right shade. The three primary colors are red, green, and blue. Mixing all three colors together at their maximum intensities produces white. Black is the result of an absence of color. Blending two or more colors with varying intensities produces other colors. The color yellow, for instance, can be produced by blending the maximum intensity of red and green.

Color intensity can be defined as an RGB triplet, where each color intensity is represented by a decimal number from 0 to 255. Color as an RGB triplet is defined as follows:

rgb(rrr, ggg, bbb)

where rrr is a decimal value for red intensity, ggg is a decimal value for green intensity, and bbb is a decimal value for blue intensity. Under this system, the color yellow could be defined as follows:

rgb(255, 255, 0)

Look at the extended colors chart and notice the RGB values for red (255,0,0), lime (0,255,0), and blue (0,0,255). The named color of green is less intense (0,128,0) than lime, and maroon is less intense than red, with half the red value (128,0,0). Yellow is produced by combining red and green (255,255,0).

Another method to indicate color is by using a hexadecimal value, or hex code, which specifies color intensity values for red, green, and blue using a different system. A hexadecimal value is a base 16 value. In everyday life, we use the base 10 system, also called the decimal number system, where the numbers 0-9 are used for digits. In the base 16 system, the numbers 0-9 and characters A-F are used to represent digits. It's not necessary to know how to convert from one system to another. The important thing to know is that the hex code for a style color really represents the intensity of color for red, green, and blue.

Each color intensity is represented by a pair of digits in the following form:

#RRGGBB

where the first two digits represent the intensity for red, the next two digits represent the intensity for green, and the last two digits represent the intensity for blue. The least intense is 00, and the most intense is FF. The pound symbol is required as part of the CSS language. Thus, the color red would be defined as #FF0000, and yellow would be defined as #FFFF00.

Even though these systems may seem complex, they provide developers with much more variety and control in color selection. Many image-editing tools also provide color values, so a developer can create an image, and then use the hex or RGB color value from the image editor to match one of the image colors and use it as a background color, for instance.