RGB to HEX

HEX

#635bff

What is RGB?

RGB (red, green, blue) is an additive color model used in digital displays, where colors are created by combining different intensities of red, green, and blue light. Each color channel typically ranges from 0 to 255, allowing for over 16 million possible colors. Example: RGB(99, 91, 255).

What is HEX?

HEX is a hexadecimal notation system for representing RGB colors in web design and digital applications. It consists of a "#" symbol followed by six characters, where each pair of characters represents the intensity of red, green, and blue respectively, using values from 00 to FF. Example hex: #635BFF.

How to convert RGB to HEX

RGB and HEX color codes are virtually the same thing: it’s the same logic, but different encoding. The RGB color model represents colors as a combination of red, green, and blue values, each ranging from 0 to 255.

For example, RGB(255, 0, 0) is a red color (we have max red, no green, no blue), while RGB (255, 0, 255) would be purple max red, no green, no blue).

On the other hand, the HEX format represents the same logic using a six-digit alphanumeric code, where “00” (double zero) means no color, and “FF” equals 255 in RGB.

Here are a few examples:

Color	RGB	HEX
White	RGB(255,255,255)	#FFFFFF
Black	RGB(0,0,0)	#000000
Red	RGB(255,0,0)	#FF0000
Green	RGB(0,255,0)	#00FF00
Blue	RGB(0,0,255)	#0000FF
Yellow	RGB(255,255,0)	#FFFF00
Magenta	RGB(255,0,255)	#FF00FF
Cyan	RGB(0,255,255)	#00FFFF
Turquoise	RGB(64,224,208)	#40E0D0
Orange	RGB(255,165,0)	#FFA500
Purple	RGB(128,0,128)	#800080
Gray	RGB(128,128,128)	#808080

RGB to HEX formula

To convert an RGB color to its HEX equivalent, we follow a series of mathematical steps. Let’s break down this process using the example color RGB(255, 128, 64).

Step 1: Divide by 16

The first step involves dividing each RGB component by 16. This gives us:

Red: 255 ÷ 16 = 15.9375
Green: 128 ÷ 16 = 8
Blue: 64 ÷ 16 = 4

Step 2: Extract the first HEX digit

We take the integer part of each result as the first digit of the corresponding HEX pair. In our example:

Red: 15 -> F
Green: 8
Blue: 4

Since hexadecimal digits range from 0 to 9 and A to F (where A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15), the value 15 translates to ‘F’. Therefore, the HEX pair for the red component is ‘FF’.

Step 3: Calculating the second HEX digit

To find the second digit, we multiply the fractional part of our division results by 16:

Red: 0.9375 × 16 = 15 -> F
Green: 0 × 16 = 0
Blue: 0 × 16 = 0

Step 4: Combine digits

We now have two digits for each color component. Let’s put them together:

Red: 15 becomes FF
Green: 80 remains 80
Blue: 40 remains 40

Combining these pairs in the order of red, green, and blue gives us the final HEX code: #FF8040.

This conversion method works because of the relationship between the decimal system (base 10) used in RGB and the hexadecimal system (base 16) used in HEX. The maximum value in RGB (255) corresponds to FF in HEX, as 16² – 1 = 255. Each HEX digit represents a power of 16, allowing us to encode the full range of RGB values (0–255) using just two hexadecimal digits.