Color Converter
Paste a color in any notation and read it in all ten - HEX, RGB, HSL, HSV, HWB, CMYK, LAB, LCH, OKLAB and OKLCH - with instant results and a live preview.
Popular color conversions
The conversions people ask for most, each with a page explaining what changes and why. Every other combination is a dropdown away in the tool above.
About the Color Converter
A color can be described in many ways. Your screen mixes red, green and blue light; a printing press lays down cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink; a stylesheet wants a hex code; a color picker thinks in hue, saturation and value; and color scientists reach for LAB and OKLCH because those map to how our eyes actually work. They are all the same color - just different notation for it. This converter moves a color between all ten, instantly, with a live preview so you can see what you are working with.
Paste whatever you have. You do not need to tell the tool which notation
you are using - it works that out from the value itself, whether that is
#0d6efd, rgb(13, 110, 253), a bare
13, 110, 253, hsl(216, 98%, 52%),
cmyk(95%, 57%, 0%, 1%) or
oklch(57.82% 0.2282 260.03). The reading is shown next to the
field, and you can correct it on the rare occasion the numbers are genuinely
ambiguous.
Nothing is uploaded. The conversion math runs in your browser, which is why the result appears as you type. Every value can be copied with one click, and because all ten models are listed at once you usually have your answer without picking a direction at all. When you want the detail behind a specific conversion - why print colors look duller, say - the dedicated pages take your color with you.
The ten color models
For the web
- RGB - red, green and blue light from 0 to 255. The native language of screens, cameras and anything that emits light.
- HEX - the same RGB values written as six hexadecimal
digits, like
#0d6efd. The standard notation in CSS, HTML and design tools. - HSL - hue, saturation and lightness. Built for humans: change one number to get a lighter, duller or shifted version of the same color.
- HSV - hue, saturation and value, also called HSB. The model behind the color picker in Photoshop, Figma, Illustrator and GIMP.
- HWB - a pure hue plus how much white and black are mixed into it, which is close to how mixing paint feels. Part of CSS Color 4 and supported in every current browser.
For print
- CMYK - cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) as ink percentages. Used for print, where color is subtractive: ink removes light instead of emitting it.
Perceptual spaces
- LAB - CIE L*a*b*, where equal numeric steps look like equal visual steps. Used for color matching, color difference and professional color management.
- LCH - LAB in polar form, swapping the two axes for a chroma and a hue angle you can actually reason about.
- OKLAB - a newer perceptual space that fixes where LAB misjudges blues and purples, so gradients built in it stay even.
- OKLCH - OKLAB in polar form, and the format modern
design systems have settled on. Tailwind now ships its palette in it, and
oklch()is native CSS.
How the conversion works
Every conversion routes through RGB. Your input is turned into red, green and blue first, then out again into the target model - so the same tested math serves all 90 directions instead of ninety separate formulas. HEX is a direct rewriting of RGB; HSL, HSV and HWB are geometric transformations of it; CMYK is the standard subtractive formula; LAB and LCH go through the CIE XYZ color space using the D65 reference white the web is defined against; and OKLAB and OKLCH use their own matrices over linear-light RGB, with a cube root that models the eye's response.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Color Converter free?
Yes, completely free, with no account, watermark or usage limits. Use the results for anything, including commercial work.
Which color models are supported?
Ten: RGB, HEX, HSL, HSV (HSB), HWB, CMYK, LAB, LCH, OKLAB and OKLCH. Each converts to all nine others, which is 90 conversions in total. You can also read the color in every model at once under the converter.
Do I have to say which format I am pasting?
No. The tool reads the value and works out the notation itself.
Function forms like rgb(), hsl(),
hwb(), cmyk(), lab() and
oklch() are recognised outright, as are rgba()
and hsla() (the alpha is ignored) and hex codes in three,
six or eight digits, with or without the leading #. Bare
numbers work too, with any separators.
What if my numbers could mean two different things?
Some values are genuinely ambiguous - 0, 100, 50 is a
valid RGB color and a valid HSL one, and no tool can know which you
meant. The converter picks the most likely reading, shows it next to the
input field, and lets you change it there if it guessed wrong.
Why do my CMYK colors look duller than on screen?
Because screens and ink work in opposite directions. A screen emits light and can produce bright, saturated colors that no ink mix can match - especially vivid greens, oranges and blues. Those colors fall outside the CMYK gamut, so the conversion lands on the closest printable equivalent, which reads as duller. For color-critical print work, ask your printer for their ICC profile and soft-proof in your design software.
Are the CMYK values color managed?
No. This converter uses the standard mathematical CMYK formula, which is exactly what you want for quick conversions, web work and getting into the right ballpark. It does not apply an ICC profile, so it cannot account for a specific press, paper stock or ink set. Professional print runs should always be checked against the printer's own profile.
Should I use OKLCH instead of HSL?
For anything you are building a system out of, yes. HSL's lightness is a crude average of the channels, so yellow and blue at the same HSL lightness look nothing alike in brightness. OKLCH's lightness is modelled on human vision, which is why color scales and gradients built in it come out even. HSL is still perfectly fine for a one-off tweak.
Can this tool show colors outside the sRGB range?
No, and it says so honestly. LAB, LCH, OKLAB and OKLCH can describe colors a normal screen cannot display, so values beyond that range are brought back to the nearest color sRGB can show. Everything inside the sRGB gamut - which covers all hex, RGB, HSL, HSV and HWB colors - converts cleanly in both directions.
Is anything uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser and nothing is stored when you close the page.