🎨 Color Converter
HEX, RGB and HSL in one place
About the Color Converter
Colors on screens and in design tools are described in several different formats, and switching between them by hand involves formulas that are easy to get wrong. A color converter does the translation instantly. Whether you have a hex code from a brand style guide or an RGB value from a design file, you can convert it to whichever format your current workflow needs.
HEX, RGB, and HSL are the three most common color models in web and UI design. HEX codes like number-sign FF5733 are compact and widely used in CSS and design tools. RGB values describe a color as three numbers from 0 to 255 for red, green, and blue. HSL describes color as hue (in degrees), saturation (as a percentage), and lightness (as a percentage), which makes it more intuitive for adjusting shades and tints.
HSL is particularly useful when you want to create color variations. Keeping the hue constant and adjusting lightness produces shades of the same color, which is exactly how design systems generate hover states, disabled states, and background tints. Converting a brand color to HSL first makes that kind of systematic variation much easier.
Designers working in Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD often encounter colors in one format while their CSS output expects another. Developers hand-coding stylesheets sometimes receive colors from a designer in a format that does not match what they need. This converter acts as a quick translation layer between those workflows.
Color accuracy matters in professional contexts. Even small numeric differences can result in visibly different colors on screen. Using an accurate converter ensures that the color you see in your design file is exactly the same color that appears in your browser or app, preserving brand consistency across every touchpoint.
How it works
- Enter a color value in any supported format, HEX, RGB, or HSL.
- The converter instantly displays the equivalent values in all other formats.
- Copy the output format you need directly from the result fields.
- Use the color preview to visually confirm you have the right color before copying.
- Adjust any input value to fine-tune the color and see all formats update in real time.
What you'll learn
- HEX codes use six hexadecimal digits to represent red, green, and blue channel values.
- RGB values range from 0 to 255 for each of the three color channels.
- HSL separates color into hue, saturation, and lightness for more intuitive adjustments.
- Keeping hue constant while varying lightness in HSL generates consistent color families.
- All three formats describe the same colors and are interchangeable in CSS stylesheets.
- Design systems often define primary colors in HEX and derive tints and shades via HSL.
FAQs
- What is a HEX color code?
- A HEX code is a six-character string prefixed with a hash symbol that represents a color's red, green, and blue values in base-16 notation. For example, number-sign FFFFFF is white and number-sign 000000 is black.
- What is the difference between RGB and HSL?
- RGB defines a color by its red, green, and blue channel intensities. HSL defines it by hue angle, saturation level, and lightness level. HSL is generally easier to reason about when creating color variations.
- Which format should I use in CSS?
- CSS supports all three. HEX is most common for fixed colors. HSL is preferred for programmatic variations and theming. RGB is useful when you need to control opacity with rgba() alongside the color.
- Can I convert a color from an image?
- This tool converts between typed format values, not image pixels. To get a color from an image, use an eyedropper tool in your browser's developer tools, Figma, or a dedicated color picker app first.
- Are there colors that exist in one format but not another?
- No. HEX, RGB, and HSL all describe the same color space (sRGB), so every color expressible in one format has an equivalent in the others. Conversion is always exact within that gamut.