Explaining the color numbering system !!!!!!
Ok here goes.
The color number is 6 digits long but can be considered to be 3 pairs of numbers which correspond to the mix of the 3 primary colors.
If you are an artist, like me, you know that the primary colors are Red, Blue and Yellow but this is not art so forget all that and accept that they are now Red, Green and Blue.
In this new world of color, mixing red and green will make yellow when both colors are at their brightest values.
We artists know that it actually makes brown but I suppose yellow could be considered 'bright brown' so we just have to get over it and move on.
Let us ignore for now that these are hexidecimal numbers and throw out all those letters from 'A' to 'F' that you see mixed in.
It is now much easier to understand if we say that 00,00,00 ( the lowest number ) is black and 99,99,99 ( the highest ) is white ( because all 3 colors are at their brightest ).
Now 99,00,00 is red, 00,99,00 is green and 00,00,99 is blue at their brightest values.
Mixing red and green without blue 99,99,00 gives that yellow I mentioned earlier.
Mixing red and blue 99,00,99 gives purple so us artists aren't too confused.
Lowering the number darkens the color so 50,00,50 would be dark purple.
If you have followed me so far it isn't a great leap to understand hexidecimal.
Of course the highest number is not 99 but FF in hexidecimal so the degree of shading is much finer.
Hexidecimal is not that hard to grasp if you stop to consider.
Taking a regular 2 digit decimal number we know that it can give you 100 different values. ( From 0 to 99 ) [ 0 is a number ]
We get that from taking the first digit and multiplying it by 10 and then adding the second digit.
Or the decimal base 10 multiplied by itself equals 100 ( with me so far? )
The hexidecimal digit is worth 16 instead of 10 and because of that they had to add letters to make the extra 6 ( A,B,C,D,E,F )
If you are not mathematically inclined just take my word for it that multiplying the first digit by 16 and then adding the second digit gives 256 possible values.
Or the hexidecimal base 16 multiplied by itself equals 256
Now that you understand the difference you can understand that each pair of numbers can return a value of between 0 and 255 making the degree of color variation much finer than if we used decimal numbers which only give values between 0 and 99.
Here is a chart that gives you colors using only 6 values for each color.
00 = 0
33 = 51
66 =102
99 =153
CC =204
FF =255
| 000000 |
000033 |
000066 |
000099 |
0000CC |
0000FF |
| 003300 |
003333 |
003366 |
003399 |
0033CC |
0033FF |
| 006600 |
006633 |
006666 |
006699 |
0066CC |
0066FF |
| 009900 |
009933 |
009966 |
009999 |
0099CC |
0099FF |
| 00CC00 |
00CC33 |
00CC66 |
00CC99 |
00CCCC |
00CCFF |
| 00FF00 |
00FF33 |
00FF66 |
00FF99 |
00FFCC |
00FFFF |
| 330000 |
330033 |
330066 |
330099 |
3300CC |
3300FF |
| 333300 |
333333 |
333366 |
333399 |
3333CC |
3333FF |
| 336600 |
336633 |
336666 |
336699 |
3366CC |
3366FF |
| 339900 |
339933 |
339966 |
339999 |
3399CC |
3399FF |
| 33CC00 |
33CC33 |
33CC66 |
33CC99 |
33CCCC |
33CCFF |
| 33FF00 |
33FF33 |
33FF66 |
33FF99 |
33FFCC |
33FFFF |
| 660000 |
660033 |
660066 |
660099 |
6600CC |
6600FF |
| 663300 |
663333 |
663366 |
663399 |
6633CC |
6633FF |
| 666600 |
666633 |
666666 |
666699 |
6666CC |
6666FF |
| 669900 |
669933 |
669966 |
669999 |
6699CC |
6699FF |
| 66CC00 |
66CC33 |
66CC66 |
66CC99 |
66CCCC |
66CCFF |
| 66FF00 |
66FF33 |
66FF66 |
66FF99 |
66FFCC |
66FFFF |
| 990000 |
990033 |
990066 |
990099 |
9900CC |
9900FF |
| 993300 |
993333 |
993366 |
993399 |
9933CC |
9933FF |
| 996600 |
996633 |
996666 |
996699 |
9966CC |
9966FF |
| 999900 |
999933 |
999966 |
999999 |
9999CC |
9999FF |
| 99CC00 |
99CC33 |
99CC66 |
99CC99 |
99CCCC |
99CCFF |
| 99FF00 |
99FF33 |
99FF66 |
99FF99 |
99FFCC |
99FFFF |
| CC0000 |
CC0033 |
CC0066 |
CC0099 |
CC00CC |
CC00FF |
| CC3300 |
CC3333 |
CC3366 |
CC3399 |
CC33CC |
CC33FF |
| CC6600 |
CC6633 |
CC6666 |
CC6699 |
CC66CC |
CC66FF |
| CC9900 |
CC9933 |
CC9966 |
CC9999 |
CC99CC |
CC99FF |
| CCCC00 |
CCCC33 |
CCCC66 |
CCCC99 |
CCCCCC |
CCCCFF |
| CCFF00 |
CCFF33 |
CCFF66 |
CCFF99 |
CCFFCC |
CCFFFF |
| FF0000 |
FF0033 |
FF0066 |
FF0099 |
FF00CC |
FF00FF |
| FF3300 |
FF3333 |
FF3366 |
FF3399 |
FF33CC |
FF33FF |
| FF6600 |
FF6633 |
FF6666 |
FF6699 |
FF66CC |
FF66FF |
| FF9900 |
FF9933 |
FF9966 |
FF9999 |
FF99CC |
FF99FF |
| FFCC00 |
FFCC33 |
FFCC66 |
FFCC99 |
FFCCCC |
FFCCFF |
| FFFF00 |
FFFF33 |
FFFF66 |
FFFF99 |
FFFFCC |
FFFFFF |