Color Name Finder: What Color Is This? Free Color Identifier

Have a color but no name for it? Our free color name finder tells you what any color is called. Type a HEX code, an RGB or HSL value, or pick a color from your screen or from a photo, and the tool shows the closest color name, how close the match really is, and the ten closest names side by side. You can also browse and search more than 2,300 color names by color family.

How to Find the Name of a Color

Finding a color name takes only a few seconds:

1. Enter your color. Type it into the search field. The tool understands HEX codes with or without the # (for example #0047AB, 0047AB, or the short form #04A), RGB values such as rgb(0, 71, 171) or simply 0, 71, 171, HSL values such as hsl(215, 100%, 34%), and CSS color keywords such as steelblue.
2. Or pick it. “Pick a color” opens your browser’s color picker, “Pick from screen” grabs any spot on your screen in browsers that support it, and “From an image” lets you click a color in a photo or screenshot.
3. Read the result. You get the closest color name, a match rating, and the color in HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK, and LAB with copy buttons.
4. Compare the alternatives. Below the result, you see the ten closest color names as swatches. Click any of them to switch to that exact named color.

It also works the other way around. Type a name such as “burnt sienna” or just “sky”, and matching names with swatches appear while you type. Choose one to see its HEX code and other values.

What the Color Name Finder Shows You

Every color you enter gets a full profile. Here is an example for cobalt blue:

You also get the color family with links to our guides, such as shades of blue, and a link to the guide for the name itself when we have one, like cobalt blue. “Copy link” copies a link that opens the tool with your color, and “Download card” and “Print card” give you a color card with the name and codes.

How the Tool Matches a Name to Your Color

There are 16,777,216 possible HEX colors (256 × 256 × 256), but only a tiny fraction of them have names, so your exact color usually has no name of its own. The tool finds the named color that looks most similar.

Equal steps in RGB do not look equal to the human eye, so the tool converts every color to CIELAB, a color space designed around human vision. LAB describes a color by its lightness (L) and two color axes: green to red (a) and blue to yellow (b). The tool uses the same LAB conversion as modern CSS, with a D50 white point.

The distance between two colors in LAB is called Delta E (ΔE). Our tool uses the original CIE76 formula, the straight-line distance between two colors, and compares your color with every name in the list. A ΔE of about 2.3 is often quoted as the smallest difference a person can notice. CIE76 is simple and fast but not perfect: it tends to overstate differences between very saturated colors, which is why later formulas such as CIEDE2000 were developed.

The match rating translates ΔE into plain words:

• Exact match: ΔE 0, your color is exactly the named color.
• Practically identical: ΔE below 2, hard to tell apart even side by side.
• Very close match: ΔE 2 to 5, a small difference you can see side by side.
• Close match: ΔE 5 to 10, similar, but a visible step lighter, darker, or more vivid.
• Loose match: ΔE 10 to 20, the same general color, but clearly different.
• Distant match: ΔE 20 or more, no named color is close, so the HEX code is the better description.

Why the Same Color Has So Many Names

Most color names are not part of any official standard. They come from pigments and minerals (ochre, cobalt blue, burnt sienna), plants and food (lavender, pistachio), places, crayon boxes, paint brands, and web standards. Each list was made for a different purpose, so one color can carry several names, and one name can mean slightly different colors in different lists.

The web itself has a short official list. CSS, the language that styles websites, has 148 named colors, such as steelblue, tomato, and rebeccapurple, counting both spellings of pairs like gray and grey. Most of them go back to the color names of the X11 window system, and rebeccapurple was added to honor Rebecca Meyer, the daughter of web pioneer Eric Meyer. The tool shows the nearest CSS keyword for every color and whether it is an exact or close match. You can read the full list in the CSS Color specification.

Basic color words are a different matter. In their 1969 book Basic Color Terms, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay described eleven basic color terms in English: black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple, and gray. Everything else, from teal to taupe, is a more specific name. That is why our tool shows both the specific name and the broad color family.

Identify a Color in a Photo or Painting

The tool also works as a color identifier for pictures. Click “From an image”, drag a file onto the search area, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac). On a phone, you can also take a photo. Move your pointer over the image to preview colors and click to name one, or use the arrow keys (Shift for 10-pixel steps) and Enter.

The “Sample” setting decides how many pixels are read: 1 pixel, or the average of a 3 × 3, 5 × 5, or 9 × 9 area. The default is 5 × 5, because single pixels in photos are often noisy. For a flat logo or a screenshot, 1 pixel is the more precise choice.

To try it, click “The Starry Night”, “The Great Wave”, or “Water Lilies” to load a public domain masterpiece. For a full palette of an image, use our image color picker.

Browse All Color Names

At the bottom of the tool, you can browse all 2,330 color names. Filter them by part of a name or the first digits of a HEX code, or by one of 12 color families: red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray, black, and white. Sort the list from A to Z, by hue, or by lightness from dark to light. The “List” menu switches between all color names and the 148 CSS named colors. Names whose HEX code matches a CSS named color carry a small “CSS” label.

For more naming ideas, see our lists of colors that start with D and other letters, and our unique color names.

What People Use a Color Name Finder For

• Painting titles and artist statements: more precise words than “blue” or “green”.
• Digital art and design: naming the colors of a palette or brand guide.
• Web development: readable names for CSS variables.
• Product listings: naming the color of clothing, yarn, or furniture.
• Writing and teaching: finding vivid color words, or showing students how colors are measured.

Tips for Better Results

• Check the match rating. A “loose” or “distant” match only describes the general color, so share the HEX code, too.
• Look at all ten names. A name that is slightly less close may suit a title better than the closest one.
• Average photo colors. Use the 5 × 5 or 9 × 9 sample for skin, fabric, foliage, or brushstrokes.
• Remember the light. The same wall can get a warmer or cooler name in different photos.
• Treat CMYK as a starting point. For professional printing, ask your print shop for their color profile.

Your Colors and Images Stay Private

Everything happens in your browser. Images you open are never uploaded, and the colors you look up are not sent anywhere. The tool only remembers your 24 most recent lookups in your own browser, and you can clear them at any time. The sample paintings load from Wikimedia Commons.

More Free Art Tools

All our tools are free, run in your browser, and need no account. See them all on the free art tools page.

• Image color picker: find the exact colors in any photo or painting.
• Color wheel: find complementary, triadic, and analogous colors.
• Color mixer: mix paint or screen colors and find paint recipes.
• Color palette generator: create matching color schemes or a palette from an image.
• Color blindness simulator: see images and palettes as color blind people do.
• Photo to sketch: turn a photo into a pencil sketch or line art.
• Photo to coloring page: turn any picture into a printable coloring page.
• Image to pixel art: convert an image into editable pixel art.
• Notan generator: plan light and dark shapes with a two- or three-value study.
• Art grid tool: put a drawing grid over any photo.
• Golden ratio overlay: check your composition with a golden spiral and rule of thirds.
• Perspective grid generator: print one-, two-, and three-point perspective grids.
• Paint by number generator: turn a photo into a printable paint by number template.
• Art pricing calculator: find a fair price for your paintings and prints.
• Art prompt generator: get random ideas for drawing and painting.
• Random character generator: create an original character with traits and a palette.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Find the Name of a Color?

Enter the color’s HEX code, RGB value, or HSL value into the color name finder above, or pick it with the color picker or from an image. The tool shows the closest color name from a list of more than 2,300 names, along with a match rating and the ten closest names as swatches.

How Do I Find a Color Name from a HEX Code?

Type or paste the HEX code into the search field, with or without the # sign, and press “Find name”. Three-digit short codes like #F00 work too. The result shows the closest name and its ΔE, so you know whether the name is exact or only near.

How Can I Identify a Color in a Picture?

Click “From an image”, or drag or paste your picture into the tool, then click the spot you want to identify. The tool reads the color there and names it.

Why Do Different Websites Give Different Names for the Same Color?

Each website uses its own list of color names and sometimes its own way of measuring color difference, and the lists overlap only partly. Our tool shows the ten closest names, so you can compare the alternatives side by side.

What Does Delta E Mean?

Delta E (ΔE) measures the difference between two colors as people see them. The tool calculates it in CIELAB with the CIE76 formula. Values below 2 are hard to notice, and values above 10 mean clearly different colors.

What Are CSS Named Colors?

They are the color keywords web browsers understand, such as teal or cornflowerblue. CSS has 148 of them, counting both spellings of names like gray and grey. The tool shows the nearest keyword for any color.

Can I Share a Color with Someone?

Yes. Click “Copy link” and send it. The link opens the tool with your exact color selected. You can also download a color card as a PNG image.

Is the Color Name Finder Free?

Yes. It is free, needs no account, puts no watermark on the color card, and has no lookup limit.