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HEX to Color Name

Find the closest named colour to any HEX code.

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The colour

Nearest name 
The name appears here

Quick Tool Overview

HEX to Color Name finds the nearest of the 148 CSS colour names to any colour, matched with CIEDE2000 in CIELAB so the answer is the one a person would pick, with the ΔE and what that difference actually means.

What it does
Names the closest CSS colour to any code
You give it
A HEX code, or any other notation
You get back
The nearest names with their ΔE distance
Best for
Describing a colour in words and sanity checks
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About the HEX to Color Name

Give it a HEX code and it names the colour: the nearest of the 148 named colours CSS recognises, plus the next closest few so you can see how strong the match is and choose a different one if it reads better.

The matching is the part worth getting right. Comparing hex codes as numbers, or measuring the distance between RGB triples, produces matches that are arithmetically close and obviously wrong to look at, because equal distances in RGB are not equal differences to the eye. This tool uses CIEDE2000, the colour-difference formula the printing industry quotes, run in CIELAB.

Each match comes with its ΔE — the measured difference — and a plain description of what that number means, from indistinguishable through to clearly different. A ΔE under 1 means the two colours cannot be told apart side by side; above 5 they are simply different colours that happen to be neighbours.

Key features of the HEX to Color Name

Matched the way the eye matches

CIEDE2000 in CIELAB, the formula the printing industry uses — not RGB distance, which regularly picks the wrong name.

ΔE explained

Each match comes with its measured difference and a plain reading: invisible, slight, noticeable or clearly different.

Runners-up shown

The next closest names too, in case one of them describes your colour better than the winner.

Side-by-side swatches

Your colour next to the named one, because a number is no substitute for looking.

Any input notation

HEX, RGB, HSL, OKLCH or an existing colour name are all accepted.

How to use the HEX to Color Name

  1. 1

    Enter a HEX code

    Or any other notation — the input takes RGB, HSL and OKLCH too.

  2. 2

    Read the nearest name

    The best match is shown with its own swatch beside yours for comparison.

  3. 3

    Check the ΔE

    How different the two really are, in the units colour professionals use.

  4. 4

    Look at the runners-up

    The next closest names, in case one of them describes your colour better.

Frequently asked questions

148, counting the greys spelled both ways and the odd one out, rebeccapurple, added in 2014 in memory of Rebecca Meyer. They are the X11 names the web inherited, which is why the set is so uneven.

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