color

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The color CSS property sets the foreground color value of an element's text and text decorations, and sets the currentcolor value. currentcolor may be used as an indirect value on other properties and is the default for other color properties, such as border-color.

Try it

For an overview of using color in HTML, see Applying color to HTML elements using CSS.

Syntax

css
/* Keyword values */
color: currentcolor;

/* <named-color> values */
color: red;
color: orange;
color: tan;
color: rebeccapurple;

/* <hex-color> values */
color: #090;
color: #009900;
color: #090a;
color: #009900aa;

/* <rgb()> values and legacy <rgba()> values*/
color: rgb(34, 12, 64);
color: rgb(34, 12, 64, 0.6);
color: rgba(34, 12, 64, 0.6);
color: rgb(34 12 64 / 0.6);
color: rgba(34 12 64 / 0.6);
color: rgb(34.6 12 64 / 60%);
color: rgba(34.6 12 64 / 60%);

/* <hsl()> values and legacy <hsla()> values */
color: hsl(30, 100%, 50%);
color: hsl(30, 100%, 50%, 0.6);
color: hsla(30, 100%, 50%, 0.6);
color: hsl(30 100% 50% / 0.6);
color: hsla(30 100% 50% / 0.6);
color: hsl(30.2 100% 50% / 60%);
color: hsla(30.2 100% 50% / 60%);

/* <hwb()> values */
color: hwb(90 10% 10%);
color: hwb(90 10% 10% / 0.5);
color: hwb(90deg 10% 10%);
color: hwb(1.5708rad 60% 0%);
color: hwb(0.25turn 0% 40% / 50%);

/* Global values */
color: inherit;
color: initial;
color: revert;
color: revert-layer;
color: unset;

The color property is specified as a single <color> value.

Note that the value must be a uniform color. It can't be a <gradient>, which is actually a type of <image>.

Values

<color>

Sets the color of the textual and decorative parts of the element.

currentcolor

Sets the color to the element's color property value. However, if set as the value of color, currentcolor is treated as inherit.

Accessibility

It is important to ensure that the contrast ratio between the color of the text and the background the text is placed over is high enough that people experiencing low vision conditions will be able to read the content of the page.

Color contrast ratio is determined by comparing the luminosity of the text and background color values. In order to meet current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a ratio of 4.5:1 is required for text content and 3:1 for larger text such as headings. Large text is defined as 18.66px and bold or larger, or 24px or larger.

Formal definition

Initial valuecanvastext
Applies toall elements and text. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line.
Inheritedyes
Computed valuecomputed color
Animation typeby computed value type

Formal syntax

color = 
  <color>

Examples

Making text red

The following are all ways to make a paragraph's text red:

css
p {
  color: red;
}
p {
  color: #f00;
}
p {
  color: #ff0000;
}
p {
  color: rgb(255 0 0);
}
p {
  color: rgb(100% 0% 0%);
}
p {
  color: hsl(0 100% 50%);
}

/* 50% translucent */
p {
  color: #ff000080;
}
p {
  color: rgb(255 0 0 / 50%);
}
p {
  color: hsl(0 100% 50% / 50%);
}

Specifications

Specification
CSS Color Module Level 4
# the-color-property

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also