# List of All Colours Definable by Text Supported by MSE

Please feel free to merge this question with List of All Colours Supported on MSE.

Are there any lists or information on all the colours operable by MathJax via \color{text only}? To wit, what colours are attainable if I don't want to use codes for colours and thus want only those colours determinable via text? For example, BurntOrange doesn't qualify.

• On Henry Ford's website, you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. – Gerry Myerson Dec 24 '13 at 23:52
• If you don't get an answer here, why not ask the MathJax people? – GEdgar Dec 25 '13 at 14:34

By default, MathJax renders \color{fuchsia}{...} using <span style="color: fuchsia">...</span>, which leaves the meaning up to the browser. It does not internally translate the name fuchsia to a particular color in RGB space or to anything else unambiguous.

The CSS2 standard defines 17 color names that will surely be present in all browsers, and should have the same meaning everywhere. These are:

$$\begin{array}{ll}\color{aqua}{aqua}\\ \color{black}{black}\\ \color{blue}{blue}\\ \color{fuchsia}{fuchsia}\\ \color{gray}{gray}\\ \color{green}{green}\\ \color{lime}{lime}\\ \color{maroon}{maroon}\\ \color{navy}{navy}\\ \color{olive}{olive}\\ \color{orange}{orange}\\ \color{purple}{purple}\\ \color{red}{red}\\ \color{silver}{silver}\\ \color{teal}{teal}\\ \color{white}{white}&(white)\\ \color{yellow}{yellow}\\ \end{array}$$

The standard does tie these 17 colors to specific points in a particular RGB color space.

The HTML4 standard defines the same 17, except that it omits orange.

CSS3 defines a longer list of 140 color names. Browsers that support this standard should agree on the meaning of the names in this longer list. HTML5 imports this list by reference, so browsers that support HTML5 should also understand the names in the longer list.

• Thank you deeply. I am especially grateful for your colours which must've consumed some time. – NNOX Apps Jan 3 '14 at 7:22
• You are welcome. The time-consuming part was the research. Generating the table of colors was done by a four-line computer program. – MJD Jan 15 '14 at 19:11

The straight forward way is to look into the source code of the color extension where you'll find

colors: {
Apricot:        "#FBB982",
Aquamarine:     "#00B5BE",
Bittersweet:    "#C04F17",
Black:          "#221E1F",
Blue:           "#2D2F92",
BlueGreen:      "#00B3B8",
BlueViolet:     "#473992",
BrickRed:       "#B6321C",
Brown:          "#792500",
BurntOrange:    "#F7921D",
CarnationPink:  "#F282B4",
Cerulean:       "#00A2E3",
CornflowerBlue: "#41B0E4",
Cyan:           "#00AEEF",
Dandelion:      "#FDBC42",
DarkOrchid:     "#A4538A",
Emerald:        "#00A99D",
ForestGreen:    "#009B55",
Fuchsia:        "#8C368C",
Goldenrod:      "#FFDF42",
Gray:           "#949698",
Green:          "#00A64F",
GreenYellow:    "#DFE674",
JungleGreen:    "#00A99A",
Lavender:       "#F49EC4",
LimeGreen:      "#8DC73E",
Magenta:        "#EC008C",
Mahogany:       "#A9341F",
Maroon:         "#AF3235",
Melon:          "#F89E7B",
MidnightBlue:   "#006795",
Mulberry:       "#A93C93",
NavyBlue:       "#006EB8",
OliveGreen:     "#3C8031",
Orange:         "#F58137",
OrangeRed:      "#ED135A",
Orchid:         "#AF72B0",
Peach:          "#F7965A",
Periwinkle:     "#7977B8",
PineGreen:      "#008B72",
Plum:           "#92268F",
ProcessBlue:    "#00B0F0",
Purple:         "#99479B",
RawSienna:      "#974006",
Red:            "#ED1B23",
RedOrange:      "#F26035",
RedViolet:      "#A1246B",
Rhodamine:      "#EF559F",
RoyalBlue:      "#0071BC",
RoyalPurple:    "#613F99",
RubineRed:      "#ED017D",
Salmon:         "#F69289",
SeaGreen:       "#3FBC9D",
Sepia:          "#671800",
SkyBlue:        "#46C5DD",
SpringGreen:    "#C6DC67",
Tan:            "#DA9D76",
TealBlue:       "#00AEB3",
Thistle:        "#D883B7",
Turquoise:      "#00B4CE",
Violet:         "#58429B",
VioletRed:      "#EF58A0",
White:          "#FFFFFF",
WildStrawberry: "#EE2967",
Yellow:         "#FFF200",
YellowGreen:    "#98CC70",
YellowOrange:   "#FAA21A"
},

• I don't think this is relevant. That table is only used if the post loads the MathJax color extension, which is not normally done. By default, MathJax renders \color{fuchsia}{...} using <span style="color: fuchsia">...</span>, which leaves the meaning up to the browser, or perhaps the CSS standard. It does not use hex codes. Davide Cervone's answer, linked from the question you were answering, says this. – MJD Jan 1 '14 at 18:11
• Ah, you're right. I totally misread the OP. – Peter Krautzberger Jan 1 '14 at 18:46

Note that (in addition to the named colors listed by MJD), you can use HTML RGB color specifications like #F80 or #C80040. For example, I think that red is too bright ($\color{red}{x}$), and prefer a toned down version like #C00 ($\color{#C00}{x}$).

• I would like to add to this that I wrote up a detailed demonstration of the #rgb notation here. I did not discuss the extension to #rrggbb because I don't think the difference between $\color{#880000}{\text{this red (880000)}}$ and $\color{#800000}{\text{this red (800000)}}$ is significant enough to be worth the additional explanation; 24-bit color is more than good enough for our purposes. – MJD Jan 15 '14 at 23:39
• Incidentally, I agree with you that pure red is too light. The standard $\color{maroon}{\text{maroon (#800)}}$ is useful here. – MJD Jan 15 '14 at 23:43