This is intended to be tool to make possible choosing an html color that is as close as possible to a desired color. For example, a monochromatic piece of a .gif might be extracted and used as the background in this table which has many cells portraying html colors and their identifiers. (The table background here is white so it won't interfere with your perception of the colors.)
An attempt has been made to identify colors in several categories in addition to their hue. "Vivid" indicates colors that might be desired for a vivid or hot presentation. "Muted" indicates colors that might be desired for a muted or soft presentation. More work is needed to refine this, including Roberto's point of view. In addition, it should be remembered that these are not all the colors that can be specified in the 6 character html format, but these are the 216 that should appear the same on both PC's and Mac's. ("C0C0C0" is the grey used for toolbars by IE5. "BFFFFF" is the blue used extensively by USMS & SwimGold.)
Links to other websites with information on color can be found at websites for webmasters. Michael Moore's explanation of these 216 colors is below the table. This facility was inspired by and built from a webpage by Dave, the "webman".. The following is his documentation.
The background color in each cell is produced by the color code shown.
What you see is your computer's interpretation of that color code.
Black, grays and white are shown in bold red. Primary colors and complements are in bold italic.
| 000000 black vivid muted (1) | 000033 black (2) | 000066 blue black (3) | 000099 dark blue (4) | 0000CC blue (5) | 0000FF blue (6) |
| 003300 black (7) | 003333 black (8) | 003366 blue black (9) | 003399 dark blue (10) | 0033CC blue (11) | 0033FF blue (12) |
| 006600 dark green (13) | 006633 dark green (14) | 006666 dark blue green (15) | 006699 blue (16) | 0066CC blue (17) | 0066FF blue vivid (18) |
| 009900 dark green (19) | 009933 dark green (20) | 009966 dark green (21) | 009999 dark blue green (22) | 0099CC blue (23) | 0099FF blue (24) |
| 00CC00 green (25) | 00CC33 green (26) | 00CC66 green (27) | 00CC99 green muted (28) | 00CCCC gray (29) | 00CCFF blue (30) |
| 00FF00 green (31) | 00FF33 green (32) | 00FF66 green (33) | 00FF99 green (34) | 00FFCC blue green (35) | 00FFFF blue green (36) |
| 330000 black (37) | 330033 black (38) | 330066 blue black (39) | 330099 dark blue (40) | 3300CC blue (41) | 3300FF blue (42) |
| 333300 black (43) | 333333 black (44) | 333366 blue black (45) | 333399 dark blue (46) | 3333CC blue (47) | 3333FF blue (48) |
| 336600 dark green (49) | 336633 dark green (50) | 336666 dark blue green (51) | 336699 blue (52) | 3366CC blue (53) | 3366FF blue (54) |
| 339900 dark green (55) | 339933 dark green (56) | 339966 dark green (57) | 339999 blue (58) | 3399CC blue (59) | 3399FF blue muted (60) |
| 33CC00 green (61) | 33CC33 green (62) | 33CC66 green (63) | 33CC99 blue (64) | 33CCCC blue (65) | 33CCFF blue (66) |
| 33FF00 green (67) | 33FF33 green vivid (68) | 33FF66 green (69) | 33FF99 green (70) | 33FFCC blue green (71) | 33FFFF blue (72) |
| 660000 brown (73) | 660033 brown (74) | 660066 dark violet (75) | 660099 violet (76) | 6600CC blue (77) | 6600FF blue (78) |
| 663300 brown (79) | 663333 brown (80) | 663366 dark violet (81) | 663399 violet muted (82) | 6633CC blue (83) | 6633FF blue (84) |
| 666600 green brown (85) | 666633 green brown (86) | 666666 dark gray (87) | 666699 violet (88) | 6666CC blue (89) | 6666FF blue (90) |
| 669900 dark green (91) | 669933 dark green (92) | 669966 dark green (93) | 669999 gray (94) | 6699CC blue qkw (95) | 6699FF blue (96) |
| 66CC00 dark green (97) | 66CC33 dark green (98) | 66CC66 dark green (99) | 66CC99 blue green (100) | 66CCCC blue (101) | 66CCFF blue (102) |
| 66FF00 green (103) | 66FF33 green (104) | 66FF66 green (105) | 66FF99 green (106) | 66FFCC blue (107) | 66FFFF blue (108) |
| 990000 red brown (109) | 990033 red brown (110) | 990066 red violet (111) | 990099 violet (112) | 9900CC violet (113) | 9900FF violet (114) |
| 993300 red brown (115) | 993333 red brown (116) | 993366 red violet (117) | 993399 violet (118) | 9933CC violet (119) | 9933FF violet (120) |
| 996600 brown vivid (121) | 996633 brown (122) | 996666 brown muted (123) | 996699 violet (124) | 9966CC violet (125) | 9966FF violet (126) |
| 999900 dark green (127) | 999933 dark green (128) | 999966 dark green (129) | 999999 gray vivid (130) | 9999CC blue (131) | 9999FF blue (132) |
| 99CC00 green (133) | 99CC33 green (134) | 99CC66 green (135) | 99CC99 green (136) | 99CCCC blue gray (137) | 99CCFF blue (138) |
| 99FF00 green (139) | 99FF33 green (140) | 99FF66 green (141) | 99FF99 green (142) | 99FFCC blue green (143) | 99FFFF blue (144) |
| CC0000 red (145) | CC0033 red (146) | CC0066 red (147) | CC0099 pink (148) | CC00CC violet vivid (149) | CC00FF violet (150) |
| CC3300 red (151) | CC3333 red (152) | CC3366 red (153) | CC3399 pink (154) | CC33CC violet (155) | CC33FF violet (156) |
| CC6600 red orange (157) | CC6633 red orange (158) | CC6666 red orange (159) | CC6699 pink (160) | CC66CC violet (161) | CC66FF violet (162) |
| CC9900 dark orange (163) | CC9933 dark orange (164) | CC9966 dark orange (165) | CC9999 pink (166) | CC99CC violet (167) | CC99FF violet (168) |
| CCCC00 yellow green (169) | CCCC33 yellow green (170) | CCCC66 yellow green (171) | CCCC99 green (172) | CCCCCC gray muted (173) | CCCCFF violet (174) |
| CCFF00 yellow green (175) | CCFF33 yellow green (176) | CCFF66 yellow green (177) | CCFF99 yellow green (178) | CCFFCC light green (179) | CCFFFF light blue qkw (180) |
| FF0000 red (181) | FF0033 red vivid (182) | FF0066 red (183) | FF0099 pink (184) | FF00CC purple (185) | FF00FF purple (186) |
| FF3300 red qkw (187) | FF3333 red (188) | FF3366 red muted (189) | FF3399 pink (190) | FF33CC purple (191) | FF33FF purple (192) |
| FF6600 red orange (193) | FF6633 red orange (194) | FF6666 red orange (195) | FF6699 pink (196) | FF66CC purple (197) | FF66FF purple (198) |
| FF9900 orange (199) | FF9933 orange vivid (200) | FF9966 orange muted (201) | FF9999 pink yellow (202) | FF99CC pink (203) | FF99FF purple (204) |
| FFCC00 yellow orange (205) | FFCC33 yellow orange (206) | FFCC66 yellow orange (207) | FFCC99 yellow orange (208) | FFCCCC pink (209) | FFCCFF violet muted (210) |
| FFFF00 yellow (211) | FFFF33 yellow vivid (212) | FFFF66 yellow (213) | FFFF99 yellow qkw (214) | FFFFCC pink yellow muted (215) | FFFFFF white vivid muted (216) |
Michael Moore adds these comments. All color on a screen is in the RGB (Red Green Blue) color space. (that is to differentiate from CMYK -Cyan,Magenta, Yellow and Black), or LAB).
Each pixel is made up of the three colors. To represent color on a screen, each value of RGB has a value from 0 to what ever the maximum is. Early monitors had only eight values for each color (0-8, 0-8, 0-8). If you added all the values for this early color space, there would be a total of 256 colors (8x8x8). With the 256 colors, one can have a color space that will represent a lot of colors. (as you may have noticed, a gif can only have 256 colors).
As monitors got better and the engineers could control the voltages much better, there then became 256 different values for each of the three primary colors (0-255, 0-255, 0-255). If you are good at binary you will immediately recognize this as being 2**8. This is particularly good for computers as each individual prime color can be represented by a byte of data (8 bits) and the color pixel that we actually see is 3 bytes of date (24 bits of data). When you do the math you actually have a palette of 16.7 million colors, which is a heck of a lot. I know I cannot differentiate between two colors that are next to each other (127,127,33) to (127,127,34) for me to see a difference I need at least a change of value change of 3 (127,127,36).
There are web safe colors - colors that will look about the same on a Mac or on a PC. The total is 216 colors, with another 40 colors reserved for Windows. There are only six levels that are common between the two monitors 00,33,66,99,CC,FF (6x6x6 =216).
The engineering of the color palette was not made by artists or anything or anybody remotely human. The palette was made by engineers, who do not think in decimal, but hexadecimal. In hex, the numbers go from 0 to 15 - 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F. So rather than having numbers that go from 0 to 255 the numbering system goes from 0 to FF. Having the palette in hex mean that there are going to be colors that look like (33CCFF).
A value of 0 (or 00) means that that color is turned off. A value of FF means that the color is to be a maximum brightness. If all the colors are turned off (000000) then there is true black. If all the colors are turned on (FFFFFF) then there is true white. If all the values are equal between true black and true white (CCCCCC) it is some gray. (CACACA) is also a gray as you have to look at each two letters as one number).
If you look at a color wheel you will see that RGB divides equally the wheel. Each of those colors is 120 degrees from the other. If red was at the top (0 or 360) then green would be at 120 (or about 4 o'clock) and blue would be at 240( or about 8 o'clock.). A complimentary color is one that is 180 degrees from the other color. Using the clock example for red (at 12 o'clock or 0 or 360 degrees), the complimentary color would be at 180 degrees or (6 o'clock). In my example, red is (FF0000) and the complimentary color is cyan (00FFFF).
Beside the physical component of each color, colors have a psychological component. You will have to find someone else to tell you about that.