Colour Names

Here are the standard colour names as used in HTML 4.0. They are the standard colour names used in Internet Explorer. We also list the additional colour names defines by Netscape. The extra Netscape names are not in the HTML 4.0 standard. If you use them now, change them to something else.

You can use the colour names in the color and bgcolor options within a variety of HTML tags. The colours can be specified by name or by the RGB code, with or without quotes. Do not leave out the quotes as that destroys the XML compatibility of your HTML. The following examples show red specified in two ways. See which work with your browser.

Standard colours

These are the standard 16 colours named in HTML 4.0 and supported by all browsers.
You should see a table with two columns of colour.
One generated by a colour name and the other by an RGB number.

Netscape colours

Netscape supports the 16 colour names listed above plus all the names in this list.
One day Netscape may drop support for these names as they are not in the HTML 4.0 definition.

You should see a table with two columns of colour.
One generated by a colour name and the other by an RGB number.
If the first column of colour is missing, your browser does not understand
the additional Netscape colours.