MySpace and Blogs: How to Get the Colors You Want Using HTML

0FD1F2...CF340E...Are these confusing to you? They are to me, too. However, with some basic concepts, you could be on your way to creating great tweaks for your websites, blogs, and spaces on the web.

The hexadecimal system is made of 6 numbers, and can create many, many different shades of colors. Although only some of these are considered 'web safe', these colors can be used relatively safely throughout the World Wide Web.

A hexadecimal system has three 'sections' of numbers. It can be split up like this: 00 00 00. Each of these sets of 2 numbers can be ordered as following: 00...01...09...0A...0B...0F...FF... etc. There are sixteen possible characters for one position - 0-9 and A-F. Still with me? Great.

Knowing this, what do all those numbers mean? Well, taking the entire hexadecimal combination, 000000, you would see black. And the opposite of this number, FFFFFF, is white. You can also consider this position "on". And everything else in between is all of the colors you see on the web.

For you artists, this may be a little bit easier to understand. Remember how the system has three sections? 00, 00, and 00? Well, each of these combinations, from left to right, represent one specific color. The first represents 'red'. The second, represents 'green'. And the third, represents 'blue'. Therefore, to make the color 'red', you would turn the 'red' position on. The resulting combination? FF 00 00.

Following this logic, green would be the combination 00 FF 00. And the combination for blue would be 00 00 FF. Remember your elementary paint mixing lessons? If you want to make purple, turn the 'red' and 'blue' positions on: FF 00 FF.

Yellow is a little confusing, but still relatively easy to understand: it's a combination of red, and green. Therefore, yellow is: FF FF 00.

Now that you know how to make colors, lets make sure you know what's safe. Usually, what is considered safe is when the three separate sections of colors are all the same digit. FF, EE, CC, AA, 77, 44, etc. 'Web safe' colors are those like FF0066, 009900, 666666, etc. These colors have a better chance of appearing properly on older computers. Most new computers will accept numbers like the ones I started this discussion - 0FD1F2, and CF340E.

In any case, I hope this tutorial has helped to wrap your head around those colors which seem so mind boggling. Hopefully, more power to the end user will give you a chance to learn, understand, and optimize your web browsing and creating experience.