Syntax

Foreground Color

To add color to an HTML element, you use style="color:{color}", where {color} is the color value. For example:

This results in:

Background Color

To add a background color to an HTML element, you use style="background-color:{color}", where {color} is the color value. For example:

This results in:

Border Color

To add a colored border to an HTML element, you use style="border:{width} {color} {style}", where {width} is the width of the border, {color} is the color of the border, and {style} is the style of the border. For example:

This results in:

Color Names

The most common methods for specifying colors are by using the color name or the hexadecimal value. Although color names are easier to remember, the hexadecimal values and RGB values provides you with more color options.

Hexadecimal values are a combination of letters and numbers. The numbers go from 0 – 9 and the letters go from A to F. When using hexadecimal color values in your HTML/CSS, you preceed the value with a hash (#). Although hexadecimal values may look a little weird at first, you’ll soon get used to them.

There are 16 color names (as specified in the HTML 4.0 specification). The chart below shows these color names and their corresponding hexadecimal value.

Color	Color Name	Hexadecimal Value		Color	Color Name	Hexadecimal Value
	Black	#000000			Green	#008000
	Silver	#c0c0c0			Lime	#00ff00
	Gray	#808080			Olive	#808000
	White	#ffffff			Yellow	#ffff00
	Maroon	#800000			Navy	#000080
	Red	#ff0000			Blue	#0000ff
	Purple	#800080			Teal	#008080
	Fushia	#ff00ff			Aqua	#00ffff

You can make up your own colors by simply entering any six digit hexadecimal value (preceeded by a hash). In the following example, we’re using the same code as above. The only difference is that, instead of using “blue” as the value, we’re using its hexadecimal equivalent (which is #0000ff):