What is a Color Converter?
A color converter translates a color value between the formats used in design and code — HEX, RGB, and HSL — so you can move between tools and codebases that expect different formats without doing the math by hand.
How to Use This Color Converter
- Enter a color in any of the three formats — HEX, RGB, or HSL.
- The other two formats and the preview update automatically.
- If the color matches a basic CSS named color, it's shown below the inputs.
- Use Copy HEX to grab the hex value for use in your code.
When Do You Need a Color Converter?
Designers and developers convert between color formats when a design tool exports HEX but a codebase uses HSL for theme variables, when adjusting a brand color's lightness for hover states, or when translating a color picked from an image into a usable CSS value.
Frequently Asked Questions
HEX vs RGB vs HSL?
HEX represents a color as a six-digit hexadecimal code. RGB describes it as red, green, and blue light values from 0-255. HSL describes it as hue, saturation, and lightness, which is often more intuitive for adjusting shades.
When to use HSL in CSS?
HSL is useful when you want to programmatically lighten, darken, or desaturate a color, since you can adjust the lightness or saturation value directly without recalculating RGB or HEX values.
What is color opacity/alpha?
Alpha (or opacity) is a fourth value added to a color format — as in RGBA or HSLA — that controls transparency, from 0 (fully transparent) to 1 (fully opaque).
How are colors stored digitally?
Digital colors are typically stored as combinations of red, green, and blue light intensities, each represented with 8 bits (0-255) per channel, giving over 16 million possible color combinations in standard 24-bit color.