Color Formats Explained: HEX vs RGB vs HSL
HEX, RGB and HSL all describe the same colors in different ways. Here is what each one means and when to use it in your designs.
If you have ever styled a website, you have met color codes like #4f46e5. But that is only one of three common ways to describe a color on screen. Knowing all three makes you faster and more flexible.
HEX — the web classic
A HEX code is a six-digit value like #4f46e5, where each pair represents red, green and blue. It is compact and universally supported, which is why it is the most common format in CSS and design tools.
RGB — how screens actually work
RGB describes a color as three numbers from 0–255 for red, green and blue, e.g. rgb(79, 70, 229). It maps directly to how a screen mixes light, and its cousin RGBA adds transparency.
HSL — the designer's favourite
HSL stands for Hue, Saturation and Lightness — for example hsl(243, 75%, 59%). It is the most intuitive format for humans: to make a color lighter you just raise the lightness, and to shift it you change the hue. That makes building color palettes far easier.
Converting between them
You rarely need to convert by hand. A color converter shows the HEX, RGB and HSL values of any color side by side, and a gradient generator lets you blend two of them into ready-to-copy CSS.
Which should you use?
Use HEX for quick, fixed brand colors; RGB (or RGBA) when you need transparency; and HSL when you want to tweak or generate related shades. They all produce the same colors — pick whichever makes your current task easier.