Hex to RGB Converter

Hex

RGB

Hex to RGB Conversion

Hexadecimal colors use base-16 notation with values from 00 to FF for each channel, while RGB (specifically RGB255) uses decimal values from 0-255. They both represent the same range of colors, just in different formats.

For example, the hex color #ff0000 (pure red) converts to the RGB color rgb(255, 0, 0).

Algorithm to convert Hex to RGB

To convert hex to RGB, each pair of hexadecimal digits is converted from base-16 to base-10 (decimal):

  1. Take the first two characters (red channel) and convert from hex to decimal.
  2. Take the middle two characters (green channel) and convert from hex to decimal.
  3. Take the last two characters (blue channel) and convert from hex to decimal.
  4. Format as rgb(red, green, blue)

For hex colors with alpha transparency (#RRGGBBAA), the last two characters represent the alpha channel, which is converted to a decimal value between 0-255 and then normalized to 0-1 for the RGBA format.

Short hex notation

Hex colors can also be written in short 3-digit notation when each channel has identical digits. For example:

  • #f00 expands to #ff0000 → rgb(255, 0, 0)
  • #0f0 expands to #00ff00 → rgb(0, 255, 0)
  • #abc expands to #aabbcc → rgb(170, 187, 204)

Similarly, there is a short hex notation for colors with transparency, using 4-digit hex codes (e.g., #RGBA).

  • #f00d expands to #ff0000dd → rgb(255, 0, 0, 0.867)

Our converter automatically handles 3, 4, 6, and 8 digit hex codes, expanding short notation as needed.

Common Hex to RGB conversions

Here are some frequently converted colors:

  • #ffffff → rgb(255, 255, 255) (white)
  • #000000 → rgb(0, 0, 0) (black)
  • #ff0000 → rgb(255, 0, 0) (red)
  • #00ff00 → rgb(0, 255, 0) (green)
  • #0000ff → rgb(0, 0, 255) (blue)
  • #808080 → rgb(128, 128, 128) (gray)
Need to convert the other way? Use our RGB to Hex Converter to convert RGB values to hexadecimal color codes.