Color Chart

What this tool does

Sometimes you want to see a lot of colours at once, laid out with their names and codes, so you can browse, compare, and pick. A picker is good for hunting one colour by eye, but it does not give you the overview of a chart, where many named colours sit side by side ready to scan. That overview is often exactly what you need.

That is what this does. It gives you a chart of colours, each shown as a swatch with its name and its code, so you can look across a whole range in one place and copy whatever you want. It is a reference you can browse rather than a single colour to choose, which suits finding a named colour, comparing options, or just getting a feel for what is available.

How to use it

1. Browse the chart. Scan the chart of colours, or search it by name or code, to find the one you want.
2. Read each colour. Every colour is shown as a swatch with its name and its values in the usual formats.
3. Copy what you need. Take the code for any colour that fits, in the format you are working in.

Look across the chart, or search it for a particular colour, and copy the code of whichever swatch suits your work.

How it works

The chart is a laid-out collection of colours, each paired with its name and its code. Rather than generating anything, it presents a known set of colours together in a grid, so the value is in the arrangement: seeing many colours at once, each labelled, in a form you can scan and copy from. It is a display and a lookup rather than a calculator.

Showing the colours together is what makes a chart useful in a way a single swatch is not. You can compare neighbours, spot the exact shade you had in mind among its relatives, and read off names and codes without picking or converting anything. The chart simply organises colours so that finding and identifying one becomes a matter of looking rather than searching blindly.

What a colour chart is

A colour chart is an organised display of colours shown together for reference. The idea is old and turns up everywhere, from paint sample cards to thread and yarn ranges, because seeing colours arranged side by side is the clearest way to compare them and choose. A chart lays the options out so you can take them in at a glance.

What sets a chart apart from a picker is that it shows a fixed, labelled set rather than an open space. Each colour on a chart is a specific, named entry with its code, so a chart is as much about identifying and looking up colours as about choosing them. It answers questions a picker cannot, such as what a named colour actually looks like, or which colours sit near one you already know.

What the chart includes

The chart brings together named colours, each with its swatch and its code in the usual formats. That pairing is the useful part: you see the colour, you have the word for it, and you have the value to use it, all in one row. So a chart works whether you are starting from a name and want to see the colour, or starting from a colour and want its code.

Having the codes alongside the swatches is what makes a chart practical rather than just pretty. It is not only a picture of colours but a working reference you can copy straight from, so spotting a colour you like turns immediately into having its value ready to paste. The names, the swatches, and the codes together are what let a chart serve as both a way to browse and a way to look colours up.

Why use a colour chart

One reason is finding a colour by name. If you know you want something like a particular named blue or green but are not sure of its exact shade or code, a chart lets you scan to it and see it, which a picker cannot do. It turns a vague name into a definite colour and value.

The other reason is the overview. Browsing a chart gives you a sense of the range of colours there are and how they relate, which helps when you are choosing and want to see options together rather than one at a time. Designers use charts to pick from a known set, to compare candidate colours side by side, and to look up what a named colour actually is, all tasks where seeing many colours at once beats picking blindly.

A chart as a reference

The real strength of a chart is as something you come back to rather than use once. Kept handy, it becomes a reference you can consult whenever you need to identify a colour, remind yourself what a named shade looks like, or grab a reliable code. That repeated, look-it-up value is different from the one-off act of picking a colour.

Used this way, a chart saves you rediscovering the same colours over and over. Instead of hunting in a picker each time or trying to recall a code, you glance at the chart and copy what you need, confident it is a known, named colour rather than an approximation. For anyone who works with colour regularly, a good chart is less a tool for a single task than a standing reference that makes every colour lookup quicker.

Questions people ask

How do I use the colour chart?

Browse or search the chart, and each colour is shown as a swatch with its name and code. Copy the code of whichever colour you want.

How is a chart different from a picker?

A picker helps you hunt one colour by eye, while a chart shows many named colours together, so you can compare, look up, and identify colours at a glance.

Can I find a colour by name?

Yes. Because the chart lists named colours with their swatches, you can scan or search to a name and see exactly what that colour looks like, with its code.

Does it give the codes too?

Yes. Every colour on the chart comes with its values in the usual formats, so spotting a colour you like means its code is ready to copy.

References

1. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), CSS Color Module Level 4. https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/
2. Web colors, named colours and their codes. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors
3. Lists of colors, organised references of named colours. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_colors