1 - Character Entities

2 - Using Front Page to create an eBay Listing Description

3 - Colors with Hexidecimal Number Values

more eBay tips...

Everyone wants COLORS!

In the eBay University seminar for HTML and Images, we learn about the color attribute using standard simple color names as values. For example:

<font color=red>some text</font>

will change the color of the font for "some text" to "some text"

You can substitute any common color name for "red" such as

blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, brown, etc; to turn "some text" into that color. 

Note that some not-so-common color names like "maroon" and "fuchsia will work as will some combination words like "lightblue" or "lightgreen" 

Uncommon names like "bruise" "oatmeal" and "monkeyspit" won't.

This is the easiest way to indicate a color but it limits us to a very narrow range of colors. There is, however, another type of value for the color attribute that provides literally thousands of colors. It involves a special type of number called hexidecimal. Let's talk a little about hexidecimal numbers before we see them in action as a color value.

Our everyday number system is based on a decimal system, that is, a numbering system based on 10 (most likely because we have 5 fingers on each hand to work with when counting.)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

A hexidecimal number system is one based on 16 (imagine if humans evolved with eight fingers on each hand. We would most definitely be using a hexidecimal number system instead of the decimal system we have always used.)

Since our decimal numbering system only has enough number symbols (10) to accommodate a decimal numbering system, we have to borrow other symbols to make up the difference. Our hexidecimal numbering system uses the digits 0 through 9 plus it "borrows" the first six letters of our alphabet:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

The type of hexidecimal system we will use as a value for our color attribute has six places, for example:

34C8BA

We use a six-place hexidecimal number with a pound sign before it as a color value, for example:

This number, #FF33EE, as a color value will give you a particular shade and hue of a color. The hexidecimal numbers for a color value are not random though. Here is how they work:

The six place hexidecimal color value number can be pictured as three separate two-place values, for example:

FF 33 EE

The three parts of the six-place numbers represent three values for colored light indicated as RGB (Red, Green, Blue).

The value "FF" represents the strength of the Red component of light, the "33" represents the strength of the Green component of light and the "EE" represents the strength of the Blue component of light.

The values of the two-place hexidecimal numbers increase in strength from "00" (no value) up to "FF" (highest value.). Here is an abridged scale from "00" to "FF"

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C ... and on up to ... 98 99 9A 9B 9C 9D 9E 9F AF BF CF DF EF FF

An interesting fact about light color - equal amounts of full-strength  Red, Green and Blue light produces White light. A zero value of Red, Green and Blue light equals black (no light). Therefore:

<font color=#FFFFFF> equals the color "white"

<font color=#000000> equals the color "black"

With all the other thousands and thousands of colors in between!

There are many web pages on the Internet that display color charts with each color's respective hexidecimal numbers. To find them, go to

www.google.com

and search on the words "HTML color chart"

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