You have a brand color defined as a HEX code. Your CSS uses RGB. Your design tool uses HSL. And the print shop needs CMYK. Color codes represent the same color in different systems, and converting between them manually involves math that almost nobody does correctly from memory. A color converter handles this instantly.
The main color formats and where each one is used
HEX color codes are six-character codes preceded by a hash symbol, like #FF5733. Each pair of characters represents the red, green, and blue channels in hexadecimal (base-16) notation. HEX is the most common format for web design. CSS accepts HEX codes directly. Brand style guides usually specify colors in HEX. It is compact and widely understood.
RGB (Red, Green, Blue) represents colors as three values from 0 to 255, one for each color channel. rgb(255, 87, 51) is the RGB equivalent of #FF5733. RGB is intuitive once you understand it because you can see directly how much red, green, and blue contribute to the color. CSS supports RGB alongside HEX, and many design applications use RGB as their primary color model.
HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) represents colors using three different properties. Hue is the color itself expressed as a degree on a color wheel from 0 to 360, where 0 is red, 120 is green, and 240 is blue. Saturation is the intensity of the color from 0 (gray) to 100 percent (full color). Lightness is how light or dark the color is from 0 (black) to 100 percent (white). HSL is very useful for creating color variations because you can change just the lightness to create tints and shades of the same color, or change the saturation to create muted versions.
HSB or HSV (Hue, Saturation, Brightness/Value) is similar to HSL but uses brightness instead of lightness, which produces slightly different results. Many design applications including Photoshop and Figma use HSB as their primary color picker. Understanding the difference between HSL and HSB helps when you are moving colors between tools that use different models.
CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) is used in print design. Screen displays mix light (additive color model), while printers mix ink (subtractive color model). A color that looks good on screen in RGB may not be reproducible accurately in CMYK print, and converting between them is not always straightforward. For any professional print work, color values should be specified in CMYK and checked in a calibrated print environment.
Why color conversion is needed in practice
Different tools use different formats by default. Figma works in HEX and RGB. Photoshop uses HSB and CMYK. CSS accepts HEX, RGB, and HSL. A brand style guide might specify HEX. Converting between these formats is a routine part of design and development work.
Creating color variations. If you have a brand color and need a lighter version for a button hover state, or a darker version for text, converting to HSL lets you adjust just the lightness while keeping the hue and saturation constant. This produces harmonious, on-brand variations without guessing.
Checking color values. When you are looking at a design and need to verify what color a specific element is, being able to convert between formats lets you compare it against brand guidelines regardless of what format those guidelines use.
How to use the Color Converter
- Open the Color Converter tool below.
- Enter your color in any supported format: HEX, RGB, or HSL.
- The tool shows the equivalent values in all other formats instantly.
- Copy the format you need.
Convert any color code to any format instantly. Free, no account needed.
Why color codes exist in different formats
Different tools and contexts use different color formats for reasons that made practical sense when each format was introduced. HEX codes became the web standard because they were compact and worked directly in stylesheets. RGB emerged from how computer monitors work, mixing red, green and blue light. HSL came later specifically because it maps more closely to how humans think about color.
The problem is that these formats are not interchangeable without conversion, and the same color expressed in different formats looks completely unrelated to someone who cannot do the math. #FF6B6B and rgb(255, 107, 107) are exactly the same color but nothing about either representation makes that obvious.
Understanding HEX codes
A HEX color code is a six-character string using digits 0 through 9 and letters A through F. The first two characters represent red, the middle two represent green and the last two represent blue. Each pair ranges from 00 to FF, which in decimal is 0 to 255. So #FF0000 is full red, no green, no blue. #000000 is black because all channels are at zero. #FFFFFF is white because all are at maximum.
Short form HEX codes use three characters instead of six when each pair of characters is identical. #FF6600 can be written as #F60 because each pair would double to form the full code. Not all HEX colors have a short form, only those where the two characters in each pair match.
Understanding RGB
RGB values list three numbers between 0 and 255, one for each color channel. RGB(255, 0, 0) is the same full red as #FF0000 expressed differently. The numbers are straightforward to understand because higher means more of that color and zero means none of it.
Understanding HSL and why designers prefer it
HSL stands for hue, saturation and lightness. Hue is a degree from 0 to 360 representing a position on a color wheel. Red is at 0, green around 120, blue around 240. Saturation is a percentage from 0% which is completely grey to 100% which is the most vivid version of the color. Lightness runs from 0% for black to 100% for white.
Designers find HSL more intuitive for adjustments because the parameters correspond to things they actually think about. If a color is too vivid, reduce the saturation. If it is too dark, increase the lightness. Making the same adjustments in HEX requires understanding how numbers interact across three channels simultaneously, which is much less intuitive.
In CSS, HSL also makes it easier to create color variations programmatically. If you define a primary brand color in HSL, creating lighter or darker versions for hover states and borders is a matter of adjusting one value rather than calculating new HEX codes from scratch.
When you need to convert
Design tools like Figma typically display HEX and RGB. When you want to create color variations or explain a color choice, HSL is often the most useful format to work in. The workflow that works well for many designers is to pick colors in a design tool that shows HEX, convert to HSL when creating variants, and output HEX or RGB for the final CSS values.
Browser developer tools display computed CSS color values in different formats depending on the browser and the property being inspected. Chrome often shows RGB values, while the CSS source might use HEX. When debugging a color discrepancy between design files and the live page, converting between the formats the different tools display helps confirm whether the values are actually equivalent or genuinely different.
Design tokens in modern design systems store color values in a central location that feeds both design tools and code. When a brand color is updated, changing it once in the token system propagates the change everywhere it is used. Most design token systems store colors as HEX values because HEX is compact and universally supported. When generating variations of a token color for light and dark modes, converting to HSL to make adjustments and converting back to HEX for the token value is the most efficient workflow.
Color spaces beyond RGB and HSL
RGB and HSL cover most everyday web development needs, but other color spaces exist for specific purposes. CMYK is the color model used in print production, where colors are created by mixing cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink rather than combining light. Converting from screen colors to CMYK is a necessary step for any design intended for physical printing, since RGB colors can appear very different when reproduced in ink on paper.
The LAB color space represents colors in terms of lightness, a green to red axis and a blue to yellow axis. It is designed to approximate human visual perception more closely than RGB, which makes it useful for comparing how different two colors look to the human eye. When you need to find colors that appear equally bright or equally saturated to a viewer rather than being mathematically equal in their RGB values, working in LAB space produces better results.