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About this color converter
Designers and front-end developers move between color formats all day. A brand guide lists HEX codes, a design tool exports RGB, and CSS themes are easiest to tweak in HSL because you can lighten or darken a color by changing a single number. This color converter accepts any of the three formats and shows the others immediately, along with a live swatch and a native color picker.
HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) is especially useful for building palettes: keep the hue fixed and step the lightness from 95% to 15% to get a consistent tint-and-shade scale. Shorthand HEX such as #0af is expanded automatically, and both comma and space-separated rgb()/hsl() syntax are understood, matching modern CSS.
Accessibility matters too. Text should have enough contrast against its background: WCAG recommends a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal body text. A quick way to improve contrast while keeping a brand hue is to convert the color to HSL and lower or raise the lightness until the text is comfortably readable. When handing colors to developers, HEX is the most compact and universally supported format; when writing CSS custom properties for themes, HSL values make light and dark modes easier to maintain. Print work uses CMYK, which this screen-focused tool does not convert, so ask your printer for a proof.
How to use it
- Type or paste a color such as
#ff8800,rgb(255,136,0)orhsl(32,100%,50%). - Or use the color picker to choose visually.
- Copy the format you need from the results box.
FAQ
What is the difference between HEX and RGB?
They are the same color model. HEX writes red, green and blue as two hexadecimal digits each; RGB writes them as numbers from 0 to 255.
Why use HSL?
HSL makes it easy to create lighter, darker or less saturated variations of one color by adjusting one value.
Does it support transparency?
Alpha values in rgba()/hsla() are ignored in this version; the opaque color is converted.
Is it free?
Yes, completely free with no signup, and it runs offline once loaded.