Colors & Computers

General Information

Colors can be represented in many formats and models. The most common models are RGB, RYB, and RGBA. RGB has 3 color channels, red green and blue. RGBA is the same but there is an extra transparency/alpha channel.

RYB is unique because it is used in paint rather than computers. Instead of green being a primary color, yellow is.
CMYK is another model. Unlike RGB, this is a subtractive color model meaning no color is white and all color is black. This is usually used in printers.

Onto formats, the 3 main ones are hexadecimal, decimal/fixed 0-1, and integer 0-255. Hexadecimal is 6-8 digits, each two representing the intensity of a color channel from 00 to FF. Sometimes hexadecimal has a prefix '#' or '0x' to differentiate from other formats
Integer is 3-4 whole numbers between 0 and 255. This is almost identical to hexadecimal, but each pair of digits are converted to decimal numbers.
Decimal is 3-4 values between 0 and 1, or a percentage 0%-100%. It can also be called fixed because it is often implemented using 8-bit fixed point numbers.

Black

Black is a simple, but very common color. The hex code for solid black is 0x000000, which means display no color. Even though it is technically not a color, some devices will display a very dark color visually identical to black instead of turning off the pixels.

Blue

One of the primary colors of both light and paint, blue's main hex code is 0x0000FF. Another common shade of blue is 0x007BFF, this is the default in Bootstrap, a popular web library developed by Twitter.

Brown

A less common color not often found in programs or websites. This color has many shades and there is no single color value to describe it. Brown is often considered unappealing in designs, and it does not blend well with other colors.

Silver

In computers, silver describes a shade of white, usually right between black and white. It contains an equal mix of the R, G, and B color channels. One shade of silver is 0x808080, 50% of each channel.

Green

A primary color of light, but unlike red and blue it is not primary in paint. This usually represents success of some task in a computer. In hexadecimal, lime green is 0x00FF00.

Orange

This is a shade of yellow, with more red than green. The shade shown above is 0xFF8000. It's usages in technology are similar to yellow, it often represents a warning and some computer displays use orange instead of white to lessen blue and green light.

Indigo

Another color with many variations. This is a combination of mostly blue and red. It can be combined with some green to provide a brighter look. One hex code for it is 0x8000FF, which is 100% blue and 50% red.

Red

Red is utilized in websites and programs to emphasize important information or messages. For example, errors and dangerous operations will often have red text, while exit buttons will be colored red.

White

This is every color combined into one. White is one of the most common colors, and is often used as the default for backgrounds, bright objects, text, and loading screens. The hex code is 0xFFFFFF.

Yellow

The only primary color in paint which is not also a primary color of light. This color is sometimes preffered over white because of how blue light affects people's eyes. All modern operating systems contain a method of lowering or removing blue light from the display, resulting in white changing to a shade of yellow.