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Color Temperature Converter

Convert colour temperature in kelvin to an RGB colour.

The light

The colour
The colour appears here

Quick Tool Overview

The Color Temperature Converter turns a kelvin value into an sRGB colour using the standard black-body approximation, with a reference scale marking every common light source from candlelight to open shade.

What it does
Converts colour temperature to RGB and HEX
You give it
A value in kelvin, and an optional tint
You get back
The colour, with a reference scale
Best for
Lighting, white balance and warm-light overlays
Color Tools Free, unlimited use No sign-up Runs in your browser

About the Color Temperature Converter

Colour temperature describes the colour of a light source by the temperature a black body would have to reach to glow that colour. Low numbers are warm and orange, high numbers are cool and blue — which is the opposite of how people use the words warm and cool, and the source of most of the confusion around it.

This converts any kelvin value into an sRGB colour, using the standard approximation of the Planckian locus, and shows the whole scale from 1000K — candlelight — up through 2700K for a warm bulb, 5000K for midday sun, and 6500K, which is the D65 white point sRGB itself is defined against.

The reference scale is the practical part. Every common light source is marked on it with its temperature, so you can match a CSS overlay to a lighting condition, pick a bulb, or set a white balance and understand what you are setting. A tint control is included too, for the green-magenta axis that fluorescent and LED sources sit off, which temperature alone cannot describe.

Key features of the Color Temperature Converter

A reference scale

Candlelight, tungsten, daylight and overcast all marked with their own temperatures.

The naming explained

Why 2700K is called warm despite being the lower number, which confuses everyone once.

Tint axis included

The green-magenta direction that fluorescent and LED sources sit off, which temperature alone cannot describe.

Standard approximation

The widely used piecewise fit to the Planckian locus, accurate across 1000K to 40000K.

CSS ready

The result as HEX and RGB, for warm-light overlays and filters.

How to use the Color Temperature Converter

  1. 1

    Set the temperature

    Drag from 1000K to 12000K, or type a value.

  2. 2

    Read the colour

    The sRGB and HEX equivalent, with a live swatch.

  3. 3

    Compare with the scale

    Every common light source is marked with its own temperature.

  4. 4

    Adjust the tint

    The green-magenta axis, which temperature alone does not cover.

Frequently asked questions

Because the words describe how the light feels, not the physics. A low colour temperature is orange, which we read as warm; a high one is blue, which we read as cool. The physical temperature runs the other way.

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