Color Converter — Free Online Tool
Working with colors across design tools and code means translating between formats. Enter a HEX, RGB, or HSL value and get the other two instantly — with a live preview swatch.
What is the Color Converter?
HEX (like #0d9488) is the web's shorthand, packing red/green/blue into six hexadecimal digits. RGB spells the same channels out as three numbers from 0–255 — what screens physically mix. HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) describes color the way humans think: pick a hue on the wheel, then adjust vividness and brightness.
Designers often prefer HSL for building palettes — shifting lightness creates tints and shades predictably — while developers paste HEX or RGB into CSS. Converting by hand is tedious and error-prone (especially the hue math), so this tool does the translation exactly, rounding to whole numbers.
How to use this calculator
- Choose your input format: HEX, RGB, or HSL.
- Enter the color values.
- Click Convert to see all three formats plus a preview.
Formula
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between HEX and RGB?
None in meaning — #ff0000 and rgb(255,0,0) are the same red. HEX is just RGB written in hexadecimal.
When should I use HSL?
When designing palettes: adjusting lightness gives predictable tints/shades, and hue rotation gives harmonious variants.
Why do converted values sometimes round?
HEX stores integers only, so fractional RGB/HSL values round to the nearest whole number — visually identical.
What is 3-digit HEX?
Shorthand where each digit doubles: #0d8 means #00dd88.