Color Palette and the 56 Excel ColorIndex Colors

Scope of the Color Palette: Each workbook has it’s own palette.  To change the default, change your book.xlt template for new workbooks.

How the color palette works (#palette)

From HELP --> Index --> palette

Each Microsoft Excel workbook has a palette of 56 colors that you can apply to cells, fonts, gridlines, graphic objects, and fills and lines in a chart.  If you are using a color monitor, you can customize the shade and intensity of the colors in the color palette for each workbook.

When you change a color in the palette, it is changed for any element formatted with the color you changed, throughout the entire workbook.  To use the same custom color scheme in a set of workbooks, you can copy the color palette from one workbook to another.  For example, you can create a custom color palette that matches your company’s logo and image and then copy it into   the workbooks used in company presentations.  You can also replace the default color palette that Microsoft Excel uses when it creates a new workbook.

Copy color palettes between workbooks (#copy)

HELP --> Wizard --> copy palette
1 Open the workbook that contains the color palette you want to copy.
2 Switch to the workbook to which you want to copy the color palette.
3 On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Color tab.
4 In the Copy Colors From box, click the workbook that contains the color palette you want to copy.

Note: I have not had any desire to change my own colors so expect them to be unchanged.  Correct interpretation of the 56 colors in the ColorIndex is dependent upon the HTML wizard conversion on ColorIndex numbers.  The RGB values definitely match color swatches.

The names for colors appears to have a wide variance; I am trying to find what Microsoft generally calls them if they are not named in Excel.

The following colors has been used in Microsoft KB documentation probably for the first 16 colors:
Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Magenta, Red, Yellow, White, Dk Blue, Dk Cyan, Dk Green, Dk Magenta, Dk Red, Dk Yellow, Dk Gray, Lt Gray

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More confusion found in MS KB documentation 0 - Black, 1 - Blue, 2 - Green, 3 - Cyan, 4 - Red, 5 - Magenta, 6 - Yellow/Brown, 7 - White, 8 - Gray,
9 - Bright Blue, A - Bright Green, B - Bright Cyan, C - Bright Red, D - Bright Magenta, E - Bright Yellow, F - Bright White

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I have had to change some colors to match Microsoft usage from what I thought was normal usage.  Assignment of name Gray may have to be changed.  Color6 and Color27 appear to both be Yellow on my system even after resetting colors (Tools --> Options).

Color Palette, Excel   (#chart)

To see your 56 colors (to bring up box in VBA) In XL95 Help --> index --> Colorindex property
In XL97/XL2000 VBE HELP (Alt+F11, F1) --> index --> ColorIndex property

It would be hard to compare the palettes between XL95 and XL97.  The XL95 palette is arranged by index number and the XL97 palette is arranged chromatically.

to see the palette in Excel
40 color palette is on a toolbar icon
56 color palette is available with Format, Cells, Patterns(tab)

in VBA
  Application.CommandBars("Fill Color").Visible = True   ' -- 40 colors
  Application.Dialogs.Item(xlDialogColorPalette).Show     ' -- 56 colors

This table was NOT generated by the Internet Assistant Wizard for Microsoft Excel.  You can find this add-in on "http://www.microsoft.com/msoffice/freestuf/msexcel/index.htm" -->

Appearance of table redone 2000-12-09 in Excel 2000, I display 32,760 colors, Excel shows only 56 colors at any time.  Following are the defaults.

Text within some cells can be viewed easier by selecting an area with the mouse.  zap colors   Reset (F5)   

interior	font	HTML	bgcolor=	Red<	Green	Blue	Color
Black	[Color 1]	#000000	#000000	0	0	0	[Black]
White	[Color 2]	#FFFFFF	#FFFFFF	255	255	255	[White]
Red	[Color 3]	#FF0000	#FF0000	255	0	0	[Red]
Green	[Color 4]	#00FF00	#00FF00	0	255	0	[Green]
Blue	[Color 5]	#0000FF	#0000FF	0	0	255	[Blue]
Yellow	[Color 6]	#FFFF00	#FFFF00	255	255	0	[Yellow]
Magenta	[Color 7]	#FF00FF	#FF00FF	255	0	255	[Magenta]
Cyan	[Color 8]	#00FFFF	#00FFFF	0	255	255	[Cyan]
[Color 9]	[Color 9]	#800000	#800000	128	0	0	[Color 9]
[Color 10]	[Color 10]	#008000	#008000	0	128	0	[Color 10]
[Color 11]	[Color 11]	#000080	#000080	0	0	128	[Color 11]
[Color 12]	[Color 12]	#808000	#808000	128	128	0	[Color 12]
[Color 13]	[Color 13]	#800080	#800080	128	0	128	[Color 13]
[Color 14]	[Color 14]	#008080	#008080	0	128	128	[Color 14]
[Color 15]	[Color 15]	#C0C0C0	#C0C0C0	192	192	192	[Color 15]
[Color 16]	[Color 16]	#808080	#808080	128	128	128	[Color 16]
[Color 17]	[Color 17]	#9999FF	#9999FF	153	153	255	[Color 17]
[Color 18]	[Color 18]	#993366	#993366	153	51	102	[Color 18]
[Color 19]	[Color 19]	#FFFFCC	#FFFFCC	255	255	204	[Color 19]
[Color 20]	[Color 20]	#CCFFFF	#CCFFFF	204	255	255	[Color 20]
[Color 21]	[Color 21]	#660066	#660066	102	0	102	[Color 21]
[Color 22]	[Color 22]	#FF8080	#FF8080	255	128	128	[Color 22]
[Color 23]	[Color 23]	#0066CC	#0066CC	0	102	204	[Color 23]
[Color 24]	[Color 24]	#CCCCFF	#CCCCFF	204	204	255	[Color 24]
[Color 25]	[Color 25]	#000080	#000080	0	0	128	[Color 25]
[Color 26]	[Color 26]	#FF00FF	#FF00FF	255	0	255	[Color 26]
[Color 27]	[Color 27]	#FFFF00	#FFFF00	255	255	0	[Color 27]
[Color 28]	[Color 28]	#00FFFF	#00FFFF	0	255	255	[Color 28]
[Color 29]	[Color 29]	#800080	#800080	128	0	128	[Color 29]
[Color 30]	[Color 30]	#800000	#800000	128	0	0	[Color 30]
[Color 31]	[Color 31]	#008080	#008080	0	128	128	[Color 31]
[Color 32]	[Color 32]	#0000FF	#0000FF	0	0	255	[Color 32]
[Color 33]	[Color 33]	#00CCFF	#00CCFF	0	204	255	[Color 33]
[Color 34]	[Color 34]	#CCFFFF	#CCFFFF	204	255	255	[Color 34]
[Color 35]	[Color 35]	#CCFFCC	#CCFFCC	204	255	204	[Color 35]
[Color 36]	[Color 36]	#FFFF99	#FFFF99	255	255	153	[Color 36]
[Color 37]	[Color 37]	#99CCFF	#99CCFF	153	204	255	[Color 37]
[Color 38]	[Color 38]	#FF99CC	#FF99CC	255	153	204	[Color 38]
[Color 39]	[Color 39]	#CC99FF	#CC99FF	204	153	255	[Color 39]
[Color 40]	[Color 40]	#FFCC99	#FFCC99	255	204	153	[Color 40]
[Color 41]	[Color 41]	#3366FF	#3366FF	51	102	255	[Color 41]
[Color 42]	[Color 42]	#33CCCC	#33CCCC	51	204	204	[Color 42]
[Color 43]	[Color 43]	#99CC00	#99CC00	153	204	0	[Color 43]
[Color 44]	[Color 44]	#FFCC00	#FFCC00	255	204	0	[Color 44]
[Color 45]	[Color 45]	#FF9900	#FF9900	255	153	0	[Color 45]
[Color 46]	[Color 46]	#FF6600	#FF6600	255	102	0	[Color 46]
[Color 47]	[Color 47]	#666699	#666699	102	102	153	[Color 47]
[Color 48]	[Color 48]	#969696	#969696	150	150	150	[Color 48]
[Color 49]	[Color 49]	#003366	#003366	0	51	102	[Color 49]
[Color 50]	[Color 50]	#339966	#339966	51	153	102	[Color 50]
[Color 51]	[Color 51]	#003300	#003300	0	51	0	[Color 51]
[Color 52]	[Color 52]	#333300	#333300	51	51	0	[Color 52]
[Color 53]	[Color 53]	#993300	#993300	153	51	0	[Color 53]
[Color 54]	[Color 54]	#993366	#993366	153	51	102	[Color 54]
[Color 55]	[Color 55]	#333399	#333399	51	51	153	[Color 55]
[Color 56]	[Color 56]	#333333	#333333	51	51	51	[Color 56]
Excel only recognizes names for Color 1 through 8 (Black, White, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan).  The colors 1-16 are widely understood color names from the VGA color palette.  Of the 56 colors only 40 colors appear on the palette.  The 40 colors names indicated on the Excel color palette (see below) are for descriptive purposes only.

The following color pairs are the same color
  11 & 25,  5 & 32,  14 & 31,  8 & 28,  9 & 30, 13 & 29,  18 & 54, 20 &34,  7 & 26,  and   6 & 27.

The above table was created in Excel 2000 with help from the following macro, which includes Worksheet function HEX2DEC.  The table was converted to HTML using XL2HTML macro which (at least when done) does not convert embedded HTML code within a cell.

Sub colors56()
'57 colors, 0 to 56
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual   'pre XL97 xlManual
Dim i As Long
Dim str0 As String, str As String
For i = 0 To 56
  Cells(i + 1, 1).Interior.colorindex = i
  Cells(i + 1, 1).Value = "[Color " & i & "]"
  Cells(i + 1, 2).Font.colorindex = i
  Cells(i + 1, 2).Value = "[Color " & i & "]"
  str0 = Right("000000" & Hex(Cells(i + 1, 1).Interior.color), 6)
  'Excel shows nibbles in reverse order so make it as RGB
  str = Right(str0, 2) & Mid(str0, 3, 2) & Left(str0, 2)
  'generating 2 columns in the HTML table
  Cells(i + 1, 3) = "#" & str & "#" & str & ""
  Cells(i + 1, 4).Formula = "=Hex2dec(""" & Right(str0, 2) & """)"
  Cells(i + 1, 5).Formula = "=Hex2dec(""" & Mid(str0, 3, 2) & """)"
  Cells(i + 1, 6).Formula = "=Hex2dec(""" & Left(str0, 2) & """)"
  Cells(i + 1, 7) = "[Color " & i & ")"
Next i
done:
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic  'pre XL97 xlAutomatic
  Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

ColorIndex -- 56 Excel Colors [#colors56/#colorindex]

[Color 0]	[Color 0]		[Color 15]	[Color 15]		[Color 30]	[Color 30]		[Color 45]	[Color 45]
[Color 1]	[Color 1]		[Color 16]	[Color 16]		[Color 31]	[Color 31]		[Color 46]	[Color 46]
[Color 2]	[Color 2]		[Color 17]	[Color 17]		[Color 32]	[Color 32]		[Color 47]	[Color 47]
[Color 3]	[Color 3]		[Color 18]	[Color 18]		[Color 33]	[Color 33]		[Color 48]	[Color 48]
[Color 4]	[Color 4]		[Color 19]	[Color 19]		[Color 34]	[Color 34]		[Color 49]	[Color 49]
[Color 5]	[Color 5]		[Color 20]	[Color 20]		[Color 35]	[Color 35]		[Color 50]	[Color 50]
[Color 6]	[Color 6]		[Color 21]	[Color 21]		[Color 36]	[Color 36]		[Color 51]	[Color 51]
[Color 7]	[Color 7]		[Color 22]	[Color 22]		[Color 37]	[Color 37]		[Color 52]	[Color 52]
[Color 8]	[Color 8]		[Color 23]	[Color 23]		[Color 38]	[Color 38]		[Color 53]	[Color 53]
[Color 9]	[Color 9]		[Color 24]	[Color 24]		[Color 39]	[Color 39]		[Color 54]	[Color 54]
[Color 10]	[Color 10]		[Color 25]	[Color 25]		[Color 40]	[Color 40]		[Color 55]	[Color 55]
[Color 11]	[Color 11]		[Color 26]	[Color 26]		[Color 41]	[Color 41]		[Color 56]	[Color 56]
[Color 12]	[Color 12]		[Color 27]	[Color 27]		[Color 42]	[Color 42]
[Color 13]	[Color 13]		[Color 28]	[Color 28]		[Color 43]	[Color 43]
[Color 14]	[Color 14]		[Color 29]	[Color 29]		[Color 44]	[Color 44]

 

1	53	52	51	49	11	55	56
9	46	12	10	14	5	47	16
3	45	43	50	42	41	13	48
7	44	6	4	8	33	54	15
38	40	36	35	34	37	39	2
additional 16 colors below are not shown on the 40 color toolbar palette but can be seen under Format, Cells, Pattern
17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32
Of the descriptive color names only those for index numbers 1 - 8 can be used in coding.
Black	Brown	Olive Green	Dark Green	Dark Teal	Dark Blue	Indigo	Gray-80%
Dark Red	Orange	Dark Yellow	Green	Teal	Blue	Blue-Gray	Gray-50%
Red	Light Orange	Lime	Sea Green	Aqua	Light Blue	Violet	Gray-40%
Pink	Gold	Yellow	Bright Green	Turquoise	Sky Blue	Plum	Gray-25%
Rose	Tan	Light Yellow	Light Green	Light Turquoise	Pale Blue	Lavender	White
*to be updated* Excel 2000 names colors below (font not patterns) ******** *** ***** **
Periwinkle	Plum+	Ivory	Lite Turquoise	Dark Purple	Coral	Ocean Blue	Ice Blue
Dark Blue+	Pink+	Yellow+	Turquoise+	Violet+	Dark Red+	Teal+	Blue+

The default ColorIndex numbers can be found in HELP -->. Index --> ColorIndex Property

The colors names indicated on the color palette are for descriptive purposes only.  Excel only recognizes names for Color 1 through 8 (Black, White, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan).

Hex equivalents used in HTML

#000000

#993300

#333300

#003300

#003366

#000080

#333399

#333333

#800000

#FF6600

#808000

#008000

#008080

#0000FF

#666699

#808080

#FF0000

#FF9900

#99CC00

#339966

#33CCCC

#3366FF

#800080

#969696

#FF00FF

#FFCC00

#FFFF00

#00FF00

#00FFFF

#00CCFF

#993366

#C0C0C0

#FF99CC

#FFCC99

#FFFF99

#CCFFCC

#CCFFFF

#99CCFF

#CC99FF

#FFFFFF

Additional 16 colors below are not shown on the 40 color toolbar palette but can be seen under Format, Cells, Pattern

#9999FF

#993366

#FFFFCC

#CCFFFF

#660066

#FF8080

#0066CC

#CCCCFF

#000080

#FF00FF

#FFFF00

#00FFFF

#800080

#800000

#008080

#0000FF

Grayscale choices as seen in the Color Palette   (#grayscale)

A B C D E F G H I 1 Palette Sample % R G B Dec Calc Formula 2 black   100 00 00 00 0 0 =(100-C2)*256/100 3 gray-80%   80 33 33 33 51 51.2 =(100-C3)*256/100 4 gray-50%   50 80 80 80 128 128 =(100-C4)*256/100 5 gray-40%   40 96 96 96 150 153.6 =(100-C5)*256/100 6 gray-25%   25 C0 C0 C0 192 192 =(100-C6)*256/100 7 white   0 FF FF FF 256 256 =(100-C7)*256/100

You can use the Color Detector to see the RGB or Hex color values by using it to click here or on the color palette custom panel. Click to view this page in grayscale [IE only], hit F5 to restore.  Background to White.  Read more about bookmarklets.

Modifications to Palette on a grayscale
Tools, Options, Color (tab), Select a palette color to be modified, modify (button)
on my Excel 2000 at this point Standard tab has 17 preselected white/ gray/ black choices at the bottom, choose any of them and you get a gray scale when you switch to the custom tab you should see the RGB values being equal and will change as you slide the choice selector.

Colors in Cell Formatting (#formatting)

The following colors may be used in formatting statements:  (see color table above)
    black, blue, green, cyan, red, magenta, yellow, white; and, Color1, color2, color3, ..., color56

The parts of the format (unless changed) are:
    positive numbers; negative numbers; zero; text

Custom Formatting (#custom)

For more information on formatting see your Excel HELP and my Formula page and particularly Custom Cell Formatting.
 

-4   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General   -1   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General   0   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General   2   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General   4   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General  5   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General  10   [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General  txt  [>=5]General; [Red]-General; [Blue]General

Entry Formatted Format -- GetFormat(cell) was used to display Format  -7  - 7.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  -3  - 3.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  -2  - 2.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  -1  - 1.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  0   0.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  1   1.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  2   2.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  3   3   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  4   4   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  5  5.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  6  6.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  7  7.00   [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 42]General; [magenta]"Text:"@  Test   Text:Test  [Blue][>=5]0.00; [Red][<=2]-0.00; [Color 45]General; [magenta]"Text:"@

Format for ... (each format is separated by a semicolon)
Positive Numbers(default); Negative Numbers(default); Zero(All other numbers); Text

Also see my Formula page (starting at #cellformat).  A generalized posting (2004-03-12) related to the above Cell Formatting, and to Conditional Formatting, and Event macros.  Two more examples of cell formatting:

  [Red][>=5]General;[Color40][>=2]General;[Color10]General;[Color30]@

  [Red][>0]"No";[Green]"Yes"

Conditional Formatting is covered on it's own page and can be used for color banding (like greenbar paper) [also see].

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Pastel colors for 50% backgrounds HTML (#chrome)

FEF5A8	C5F19A	FFD8A0	F5DDB7	B9D0E8	D6BFD4	F79494	D3D7CF
template_talk

#FFFFCC

#FBF4D4

#FFFF80

#F3E078

#B3B300

#BFCFFF

#CCCCFF

#F3E0FF

#DCFFDC

Changing the Colors of your DOS session   (#DOS)

Color change is available at least in WinNT. 

Changing colors of your DOS window may or may not work for you.  I changed mine mainly in order to work with a specific package so that the wording is black on white.  This is easy to change but where there is no text the color will remain black.  (directions).  Color can also be changed in the DOS window with the color command (Color F0), which can be put into your Autoexec.bat -- to be effective you must reboot.  The screen can still turn black upon exiting an application but can be instantly reverted to white by typing Color.

The DOS assignments of the 16 colors (0-15)    (#OE)

The normal VGA assignments do not apply to Excel, but they do apply to older VGA monitors used on IBM mainframes and DOS color assignments.

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
000000 Black	000080 Navy	008000 Green	008080 Teal	800000 Maroon	800080 Purple	808000 Olive	C0C0C0 Silver
The assignments 0-15 are NOT those used by Excel ColorIndex
		10	11	12	13	14	15
808080 Gray	0000FF Blue	00FF00 Lime	00FFFF Cyan*	FF0000 Red	FF00FF Magenta*	FFFF00 Yellow	FFFFFF White

The Colors supported by Internet Explorer and most browsers in alphabetical order (#HTML): 
AQUA,   BLACK,   BLUE,   FUCHSIA,   GRAY,   GREEN,   LIME,   MAROON,   NAVY,   OLIVE,   PURPLE,   RED,   SILVER,   TEAL,   white (white),   yellow     [Select area with mouse to read]

The above colors are supported in the HTML 3.2 standard but have not been universally accepted by all browsers.  In HTML the colors are Fuchsia: #FF00FF instead of Magenta; and Aqua: #00FFFF instead of Cyan.

#gamma
The colors above and as fonts below are the choices of colors for Outlook Express and use the HTML names.  Colors 0-6, and 8 are very hard to see the difference looking straight at the screen on what would now be an old laptop.

0 Black, 1 Navy, 2 Green, 3 Teal, 4 Maroon, 5 Purple 6 Olive, 7 Silver, 8 Gray, 9 Blue, 10 Lime, 11 Aqua+, 12 Red, 13 Fuschia, 14 Yellow, 15 White

0 Black, 1 Navy, 2 Green, 3 Teal, 4 Maroon, 5 Purple 6 Olive, 7 Silver, 8 Gray, 9 Blue, 10 Lime, 11 Aqua+, 12 Red, 13 Fuschia, 14 Yellow, 15 White

0 Black, 1 Navy, 2 Green, 3 Teal, 4 Maroon, 5 Purple 6 Olive, 7 Silver, 8 Gray, 9 Blue, 10 Lime, 11 Aqua+, 12 Red, 13 Fuschia, 14 Yellow, 15 White

0 Black, 1 Navy, 2 Green, 3 Teal, 4 Maroon, 5 Purple 6 Olive, 7 Silver, 8 Gray, 9 Blue, 10 Lime, 11 Aqua+, 12 Red, 13 Fuschia, 14 Yellow, 15 White

You should be able to distinguish link colors, if you can’t, consider specifying your own default colors (or even overrides).  Click here to establish visited links below.

Possible link color changes

link     #0000FF visited #FF00FF

link     #0000FF visited #FF00FF

Your own link colors

unvisited link visted link

unvisited link visted link

You can change your own default colors for links: 
   In Internet Explorer use Tools, Internet, General (tab), Fonts. 
       (Not recommended but Accessibility button has option to override web page colors.)
   In Firefox use Tools, Options, General (icon on left), Fonts and Colors, OK.  (color override on same dialog.)

To temporarily override a web pages visited links color you can use a bookmarklet which would be in effect until you reload the page or hit F5 (Reset/Reload).  The bookmarklet Links Visited to RED is particularly useful when viewing Google search results.  (Try it yourself, and Reset with F5.  If you like it drag to links bar or a folder in your links bar, and do look at my bookmarklets page.)

Since changing the actual colors is not possible, and would be ill advised, I’m not going to attempt to see if it is possible to have eight distinguishable font colors for my laptop when within  Outlook Express usage. 

The Gamma can be changed for colors, and is somewhat equivalent from moving up or down when viewing the laptop monitor, or by adjusting the tilt of the monitor.  Most of problem distinguishing color pertains to fonts, backgrounds are okay and bold text better than plain text.  To adjust the colors on the monitor use:  Control Panel, Settings, Display (monitor), settings (tab), Advanced (button), Color (tab), and change the color.  The gamma is seen as a color curve that you can distort for each of the primary colors (Red, Green, Blue).  Other Display settings.

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Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   Help   (#Help)  

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HELP - related information (#help)

HELP --> Find --> color --> color --> "Basic number format codes"

HELP --> Index --> colorindex property --> colorindex property

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Macros   Macros   Macros   Macros   Macros   Macros   Macros   Macros   Macros   (#Macros)  

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Setting Colors in Excel VBA Macros (#macros)

ActiveCell.Borders.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0)
ActiveCell.Borders(xlTop).Color = RGB(0, 0, 255)
ActiveCell.Borders(xlBottom).ColorIndex = 18

ActiveCell.Font.ColorIndex = 17
ActiveCell.Font.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0)
Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone  'xlColorIndexAutomatic or xlColorIndexNone
Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = 5
Selection.Interior.Color = RGB(200, 250, 200)
Selection.Interior.Color = &Hc8efac8   'h=Hex,  o=Octal  anyone still use octal
ActiveCell.Font.Background = {xlAutomatic | xlOpaque | x1Transparent}

Workbooks("BOOK1.XLS").Worksheets("Sheet1").Activate
ActiveWindow.GridlineColor = RGB(255,0,0)

Members of Excel Constants details:
Const xlColorIndexNone = -4142 (&HFFFFEFD2)
Const xlColorIndexAutomatic = -4105 (&HFFFFEFF7)
Const xlAutomatic = -4105 (&HFFFFEFF7)
Const xlBackgroundOpaque = 3
Const xlBackgroundTransparent = 2
Const xlOpaque = 3
Const xlTransparent = 2

Coloring Formulas Blue, and remove other font colors   (#ColorFormulas)

You could assign this to a toolbar button.

   Sub ColorFormulas()    'xl97 up use xlcelltypeformulas
     Cells.FONT.ColorIndex = xlAutomatic
     Selection.SpecialCells(xlFormulas).FONT.ColorIndex = 5
   End Sub

Also see Coloring Cells based on CellType as tested with SpecialCells.

Coloring Unprotected Cells Blue   (#FormatUnprotected)

Simulate a Lotus 1-2-3 feature to color unprotected cells blue (ref)

Sub FormatUnprotected()
    For Each Item In Intersect(ActiveSheet.UsedRange, Selection.Cells)
      If Item.Locked = False Then
        Item.Font.colorindex = 32
       End If
    Next
End Sub

Changing Font based on interior color and column (#chgfont)

Check for interior color of 41 (light blue).

Sub whiteONblue()
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual   'pre XL97 xlManua
  Dim cell As Range
  '---Range("A3:N100").Select
  For Each cell In Selection
    If cell.Interior.colorindex = 41 And cell.Column = 4 Then
        cell.Font.colorindex = 2 '2=white, 6=yellow
    End If
  Next cell
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic   'pre XL97 xlManua
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
End Sub

Clear Constants from Color Cells   (#ClearConstantsFromColorCells)

The purpose of ClearConstantsFromColorCells is clear out constants from the cells that have an interior color, and to retain the color of the cells. Formulas, and empty cells will not be affected and aren't even checked.

You can select an entire column without taking 6 seconds to process every cell in that column because the cells processed must also have constants.  Anything located by SpecialCells is by definition in the UsedRange.  Anything outside the UsedRange could have color but won't have constants.

Have been doing so many change events lately that I turned off events during the execution.  There is a little risk here with EnableEvents turned off should the subroutine fail for some reason.

Sub ClearConstantsFromColorCells()
   Application.ScreenUpdating = False
   Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
   Dim Cell As Range
   On Error Resume Next   'In case no cells in selection
   Application.EnableEvents = False
   For Each Cell In Intersect(Selection, _
              Cells.SpecialCells(xlConstants))
      If Cell.Interior.ColorIndex >= 0 Then Cell.ClearContents
   Next
   Application.EnableEvents = True
   Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
   Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Determining Interior Color of Another Cell   (#icolorF)

  Function showRGB_wrong(rcell)
    showRGB = rcell.Interior.Color)
  End Function

You won't get too far in HTML using  range.Interior.Color  as above which is supposed to show RGB but shows them in the wrong order and without leading zeros.  HTML has the RGB components in the correct RGB order, so the following would be what you need to equate to HTML color definitions.  Most people get the HTML wrong because range.Interior.Color returns wrong order for RGB components. For this reason the tables show the #prefix used in HTML colors to avoid all ambiguity.

  Function showRGB(rcell)
     Dim xColor As String
     xColor = Right("000000" & Hex(rcell.Interior.Color), 6)
     ShowRGB = Right(xColor, 2) & Mid(xColor, 3, 2) _
      & Left(xColor, 2)
  End Function

  Function showColorIndex(rcell)
      showColorIndex = rcell.Interior.ColorIndex
  End Function

  Function ShowHTMLcolor(xcell) As String
     Dim xColor As String
     xColor = Right("000000" & Hex(xcell.Interior.Color), 6)
     ShowHTMLcolor = "#" & Right(xColor, 2) & Mid(xColor, 3, 2) _
      & Left(xColor, 2)
  End Function

Example: interior colorindex of B28
      =ShowColorIndex(B28)

Coloring a selection based on a simple cell formula (#colorofassignment)

See posting 2005-06-01 in Excel.misc

Sub ColorOfAssignment()
    Dim rng As Range, cell As Range
    Set rng = Selection
    'rng.Interior.ColorIndex = xlAutomatic   'clear color
    For Each cell In Intersect(rng, _
            rng.SpecialCells(xlFormulas))
        On Error Resume Next
        cell.Interior.ColorIndex = _
           Range(Mid(cell.Formula, 2)).Interior.ColorIndex
        On Error GoTo 0
    Next cell
End Sub

Formatting a selection based on a simple cell formula (#formatofassignment)

Sub FormatOfAssignment()
    Dim rng As Range, cell As Range
    Set rng = Selection
    For Each cell In Intersect(rng, _
            rng.SpecialCells(xlFormulas))
        On Error GoTo passby
        Range(Mid(cell.Formula, 2)).Copy
        cell.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlFormats, Operation:=xlNone, _
           SkipBlanks:=False, Transpose:=False
passby:
        On Error GoTo 0
    Next cell
End Sub

Populating cell value based on Cell Interior Color (#popvalue)

Sub Populate_color()
   Dim cell As Range
   For Each cell In Intersect(Selection, _
            Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeConstants, xlNumbers))
      cell.Interior.ColorIndex = cell.Value
   Next cell
End Sub

Setting Interior Color based on another Cell (#popbased)

Option Explicit
Global gblColorIndex As Long
Sub SetInteriorColor()
  gblColorIndex = ActiveCell.Interior.ColorIndex
End Sub 

Sub PutInteriorColor()
  Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = gblColorIndex
End Sub

Sub SameInteriorAsA1()
  Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = [A1].Interior.ColorIndex
End Sub

Also see Conditional Formatting.

Sorting on Interior Cell Color (#sorting)

This is a somewhat frequent request, that is going to be prone to errors in interpretation of what color is.  You can obtain ColorIndex or RGB but how would you sort that meaningfully.  Finally you are going to have problems with recalculaton. 

This topic is covered further on a separate page:  Color, Sorting on Color

Interior Color, using Count, SUM, etc. (#count)

For Each cell In Selection  'Check for Black interior color
    If cell.Interior.ColorIndex = 1 Then
        [action]
    End If
Next

• Count cells with a particular background cell color - PhilCxn <philcxn@aol.com>
• ShowColor(cellref) - Patrick Molloy

If the colors you want to test are due to Conditional Formatting then use the same kind of test that you used for Conditional Formatting, and the results will be immediate (no recalculation needed) i.e.
  =COUNTIF(D12:D16,TRUE)
  =SUMIF(D12:D16,TRUE,E12:E16)

If the colors are not from C.F. you will have to use a User Defined Function to find this information and since formatting is not registered as a cell change you will have to wait for a recalculation to occur to get a valid answer.  You can but should not make the macro Volatile, since by doing that you could bring your Excel to an extremely slow state.  Examples follow in the next paragraph.

See my Functions for Determining Interior Color of Another Cell described earlier for RGB, ColorIndex, and HEX.

Chip Pearson has some additional color functions using a little different approach unfortunately for whatever reason he does not provide (#cpcolorsx) examples of his Functions For Cell Colors:

The following examples obtain the colorindex from another cell which is best, because colorindex colors can be changed by changing the palette.

Interior, colorindex of
    =cellcolorindex(A$3,0)
if you installed in your personal.xls workbook to be available to all workbooks, use
    =personal.xls!cellcolorindex(A$3,0)

Font, colorindex of
    =cellcolorindex(A$3,1)

Count the cells with same interior color as A$3
    =countbycolor(A$1:A$17,cellcolorindex(A$3,0))

Count the cells with same font color as A$3
    =countbycolor(A$1:A$16,cellcolorindex(A$3,1),1)

Sum of the cells with same interior color as A$3
    =sumbycolor(A$1:A$16,cellcolorindex(A$3))

#NAME? error will occur if you misspell one of the UDF (User Defined Function) above or did not install the function.  A #VALUE! error may occur if you did not install a function used inside or misuse it.  Instructions to install macros and User Defined Functions can be found on my formula.htm page.

To work with shading instead of colorindex use .pattern instead of .colorindex and rename functions accordingly.  Specific patterns include such name as: xlgray8, xlgrid, xlvertical

Processing Coloured Cells, Bob Phillips, informative text, and macro subroutines

Determining the Row color based on cell value in that row (#rowcolor)

Conditional Formatting introduced in Excel 97 is limited to 3 conditions.  With more than 3 conditions a macro would be required, such as shown below.  Another kind of macro that you could use is an Event Macro.  Note even if you have an Event macro you will probably want a normal macro to fix things up ahead of time.  A more complicated macro differentiating text values, numbers, and empty cells in addition to ranges of numbers.

Sub  ColorRowBasedOnCellValue()
  'David McRitchie, 2001-01-17 programming -- Color row based on value
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
  Dim cell As Range
  For Each cell In Intersect(Selection, ActiveCell.EntireColumn, _
         ActiveSheet.UsedRange)
    Select Case cell.Value
        Case Is >= 50
            cell.EntireRow.Interior.colorindex = 20
        Case Is >= 40
            cell.EntireRow.Interior.colorindex = 37
        Case Is >= 20
            cell.EntireRow.Interior.colorindex = 38
        Case Is >= 0
            cell.EntireRow.Interior.colorindex = 36
        Case Else
            cell.EntireRow.Interior.colorindex = 44
    End Select
  Next cell
  Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False
End Sub

Delete Rows Based on RED interior color in Column A (#DelRows)

The following will delete the entire row if it sees RED as define by ColorIndex = 3    There are some caveats:

• Conditional Formatting colors are invisible to VBA.
• The ColorIndex = 3   is the default someone could change it
• Not everybody is going to be able to distinguish RED from colors close to it and then there is Red/Green colorblindness.
• Not all monitors are going to show colors alike, though RED is pretty safe in that regard.

  Comments for the following code can be found below the macro DelCellsUp on another web page.

  Sub DeleteRowsRedInColA()
    'David McRitchie  2002-01-17
    '  http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/colors.htm
    'Will not find color due to Conditional Formatting
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual   'pre XL97 xlManual
    Dim rng As Range, ix As Long
    Set rng = Intersect(Range("A:A"), ActiveSheet.UsedRange)
    For ix = rng.Count To 1 Step -1
        If rng.Item(ix).Interior.ColorIndex = 3 Then
          rng.Item(ix).EntireRow.Delete
        End If
    Next
    Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
  End Sub
  

HEX Conversions for RGB values (#hexconv)

Hex characters are actually characters, but represent binary numbers.

RGB values are represented by 6 hex digits.  The first pair of digits represents Red, the next Green, and the last Blue.  The values range from 0 to 255, or in hex from 00 to FF.  Given a six hex digit representation in hex characters such as 00C0C8 as hex characters simply use left, and mid to separate them the digit pairs.  Look in HELP for more information about HEX2DEC and DEC2HEX.  Suppose B14 had a Long (Binary) integer in it and you want 6 hex digits for RGB.  HEX2DEC and DEC2HEX are part of the Statistical Analysis Toolpak [menu]  [list]

There are 256³ RGB colors (16,777,216) and only 56 colorindex colors in the palette; so a one to one match of each is not only impossible, but the colors in the palette can be reassigned to different colors. 

Conversion of Font color in Excel to a hex string for HTML (via VBA code)  (#hexconvxl)

The following code was used in XL2HTMLx conversion of an Excel sheet to HTML.  Note Excel appears to store binary values in reverse order or perhaps this is just “big-endian” (main frames, 1234 order) vs. “little-endian” (most PCs, 4321 order).

   xColor = Right("000000" & Hex(Selection.Cells(r, C).FONT.Color), 6)
   xColor = "#" & Right(xColor, 2) & Mid(xColor, 3, 2) & Left(xColor, 2)
   If xColor <> "#000000" Then _
      x = "<font color=""" & xColor & """>" & x & "</font>"

Conversion of a single binary decimal number to decimal RGB components (WS formulas)

      =RIGHT("000000" & DEC2HEX(B14),6)

If you have a character value such as 00C0C8 or you start from a Long (Binary) integer, your can incorporate the above formula into the following

      =HEX2DEC(Left(B15,2))
      =HEX2DEC(MID(B15,3,2))
      =HEX2DEC(MID(B15,5,2))

I have not provided for the possibility of 3-digit hex numbers in HTML like #333 #608 which are equivalent to #333333 and #660088, simply because I would never create the values that way myself.

I also would never produce RGB(red,green,blue) strings for use in HTML and they are mostly done incorrectly (without quotes) in most places that I see them used and harder to work with visually when coding or comparing source.

Changing the Colors of your Excel Color Palette (#chgpalette)

To change a color in your palette go to Tools --> Options --> Color where you can change a color by double-clicking on a color cell.  Use Reset to revert back to defaults.  Also see   Help --> colors, changing

Changing the default Shading Color (Fill Color) / (#fillcolor)

The default shading color is yellow (RGB: 255, 255, 0).  If you want to change it for a workbook you will have to change the color in that position of the palette.  Best to exchange the color with another color on the palette say Lt Green (RGB: 204, 255, 204) using Tools, Options, Colors, Modify, Custom.  You can always use Reset to restore normal palette for the workbook. 

Changing the Color of your Excel Cell Comment  (#cellcommentcolor)

A frequent question in the newsgroups is how to change the default colors in the Cell Comments.  The name of the author is picked up from your Tools, Options, General, User Name.  (you cannot change the color of the red triangle)

Cell Comments are Tool Tips so to change your default you must change your Windows default.  To change only once cell comment double-click on the border of the cell comment and make your changes. 

To change Tool Tips.  (Changes to Windows settings affect ALL applications)
  Windows START, settings, control panel, Display (monitor icon)

Retain a copy of your Original Control Display Settings (#BackupDisplay)
Before continuing it might be a good idea to name your current settings and then name your new settings.

• Press [Save As] button then assign the scheme to something like Windows out of the box mmm dd, yyyyy (current date).
• Press [Save As] button then assign your own name to the scheme i.e. “David 2000-06-22”, and all future changes would be made to this scheme.
• In the item: pull down, rather than pulling down you can simply place cursor in the box and then use the cursor to cycle up or down through the choices.  Select “Tool Tip” and make changes to font, fontsize, text color, background color as wanted.  not sure if you actually will change the fontname or not.

You can select parts of the windows shown which will change the item selected, but tool tips is not one of them, you have to use the pull down.

My own settings show: red text, yellow background, 8 point, MS Sans Serif, non bold, non italic.  (I'm not sure what they were originally).

Also see entire comment box turns black.

More material on Cell Comments 

Changing the Colors of Worksheet Tabs (#tabs)

The color of the tabs is controlled by Windows, you can change the scrollbar setting but it will affect everything in Windows and until Excel 2002 all tabs had to be the same color as the scrollbar.  Changes to size of scrollbar will change size of tabs.  Changes to color affect both tabs and all scrollbars in Windows (or at least in Office).  You can change the fontsize on the sheet tab, but not the font color or font size within the sheet tabs.  Before making changes see Retain a copy of your Original Control Display Settings on this page.

In Excel 2002 you can color individual worksheet tabs.  Here is a tip from Jessica Kovalik in exceltip at Microsoft ’s Office site.

• Select the sheets you want to color by holding down the CTRL key and clicking the tabs.
• On the Format menu, point to Sheet, and then click Tab Color. You can also right-click the sheet tab and then click Tab Color.
• Click the color you want, and click OK.

In VBA (for Excel 2002) the equivalent would be:
    Activesheet.Tab.ColorIndex = 50

I believe the normal reason to color tabs is to provide an organization to them.  You can sort sheet tabs with a macro.  You can enhance your sorted arrangement by preceding the sheet tab with some less conspicuous small letters prefixes.  i.e.
    k.FunctKeys, k.ShortCutKeys
If working with dates for sheetnames, spell the year out and place it first
    2002-10, 2002-11, 2002-12, 2003-01
sort sheet tabs into alphabetical order in http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/buildtoc.htm#sortallsheets
The main topic on that page is to create a Table of Contents with hyperlinks to the other sheets.  Shorter versions with just membernames can be found in buildtoc.htm.  A builtin alternative to navigate to a sheet via the More Sheets dialog listing (also available from a macro) is to right-click on a scrolling arrow in lower left corner, the sheets are listed in the same order as the worksheet tabs at the bottom of your spreadsheet (another reason to sort your worksheets).
Sort sheets by color of sheet tab, by colorindex number, Chip Pearson's sortws.htm

There is one problem that I know of with the arrangement of sheet tabs.  You will probably have trouble with Mail Merge if the worksheet to be used in Mail Merge is not the first worksheet.

You can go through 90 worksheets very quickly using Ctrl+PageDn to go down through the worksheet tabs, or Ctrl+PageUp to backup through the tabs.  I prefer to use a couple of macros and toolbar buttons –      

Color Triangles in Excel   (#triangles)

• Red , upper-right corner of a cell indicates a Cell Comment 
• Black, upper-left corner of a cell indicates highlight changes:  Tools, Track changes, Highlight Changes
• Green, upper-left corner of a cell indicates a potential error in the formula in the cell.  To turn off or adjust settings:  select Tools, Options, and select the Error Checking (tab) and uncheck "Clear the Enable Background Error Checking".  [new in Excel 2002 (dead link at MS]and you can change the color of error indicator triangle there as well.  Not shown if Track Changes is also in effect.
• Purple, lower-right corner of a cell indicates a smart tag. [new in Excel 2002 (XP)] to turn off or adjust settings:  select Tools, Options, and select the Error Checking tab. [more]

Printing the comment indicator by aligning a shape over the upper right corner of cells with comments.  see Print Worksheet with Comment Indicators (contextures.com)

Manually Changing the Interior Color of Worksheet Cells (#manual)

Setting the interior color of the active cell, specifically Applies to all cells in a selection that you can add to with the use of the Ctrl key.
    Format --> cells --> patterns and colors

You can install a button on your toolbar to hasten the process, it looks like a dripping paint can.
    View --> customize --> toolbars --> custom --> format
select the dripping paint bucked, marked Fill Color and drag it to your toolbar (if not already there).

Color Coding Cells for Usage (#colorcoding)

You can color code cells or text to help with reading and/or to help with data entry.  Please keep in mind that laptops and color-blind people may not see colors the same as you do.

• Pale color shading can be used to designate input areas, and can be expanded to different colors for input from different areas (departments).
• Formula results might be shown with a different text color, and the formulas themselves and other non-input areas such as descriptions might be protected from accidental changes.
• Cells with links will generally show up in blue or purple with underlining.  Best not to change what people expect.
• Highlight cells for review that you modified or find questionable.  Change them back at a later time.  Also see tracking in Highlight changes.

Related: Conditional Formatting, Format/Styles, Filtering, Tracking

Color Charts on the Web   (#colorcharts)

Refer to RGB Hex Triplet Color Chart for Douglas R. Jacobson ’s charts. [ http://homepage.mac.com/jakesan/DHP/page0/page2/page2.html]

Hex Color Chart for the HTML Resource Guide for a faster loading variation of Jacobson ’s hex chart by Jack Wilson. [http://www.bitmedia.com/colors/]  It ’s faster because it uses tables with BGCOLOR instead of a lot of bit maps. [ archived copy]

Color Chart at Alan Barasch ’s Excel site has a slider to change the background color so you can check combinations of cell colors in foreground to varied background colors in HTML.  Pretty neat.  He also has a similar Font Color Chart (text background), and Color Chart (page background) a slider to change cell background color.  (Charts and sliders each have 216 colors) Works only in Internet Explorer, but is one of the easiest to use.

6X6X6 Netscape Color Palette Map

Web colors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Color Detector (#detector)

cosmin.com - Color Detector, Freeware program to detect the color of any pixel on the screen. Simply run the program, point the mouse cursor anywhere on the screen, and the color detector window will display the RGB values, HTML hex code, and the color name of the color of the pixel pointed to by the mouse cursor.  You can invoke the installed .exe link directly with IE, or if using Firefox by invoking through your customized Launchy extension to invoke with Explorer.  ( colordector.exe)

If you are using Firefox for browsing HTML you might want to also install Colorzilla extension for working within Firefox – Eyedropper (color sampler, status bar options), ColorPicker, Page Zoomer, DOM inspector (if present).  More extensions on my Firefox Customization (Notes) page.

Color Wheel Picker, is similar to Color Detector but works only on its page with a color wheel so you can pick your color (IE active-x only)

Back To Font Web Color Picker, select your colors and create the styles to place into your HTML coding.   Also see CSS (Style Sheets) on other references on my Font page.

HTML Colors - Color picker, AMPsoft, displays the hex, dec and RGB values, via taskbar icon or hotkey  (is not a detector)

Palette Grabber :: Firefox Add-ons, Creates a color palette for Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, GIMP, Flash, Fireworks, Paint.NET, or OS X based on the current page.

Color Luminance   (#Luma)

In color television luminance is calculated (approximately) like this (1 = white, represented by 1V signal voltage):
  L = R*0.3+G*0.59+B*0.11

This formula was created to make the color video signal compatible with black and white monitors/receivers.  Monochrome monitors are still in use as professional viewfinders on many TV cameras, since they create a sharper image than one made from a color matrix. Posted by Harald Staff, plus the reference below.

Poynton ’s Color FAQ, Charles Poynton   [alt] [archive] -- see item #9.

Colors used in other programs (not Excel) / (#pgms)

• Color Cube (geocities archive), see The JavaScript Source: Image Effects: Basic Color Cube.  Show what different background colors (in HTML) would look like from a choice of 216 (18x12) colors.
• Syd Allan: HTML Tag an Color Test Page, has a list of other sites with color information, and has color tables of colors used in SAS. 

Coloring Code (#coloringcode)

• Pretty Print printing VBA Code in colors as you see them on your screen. 
• HTML Kit also has color provisions and is set up for HTML.  HTML-Kit described in Related area of my Excel to HTML page.

Colors used in the Visual Basic Editor (#vbe)

Not going to go into this in detail here or on the page for the Visual Basic Editor (VBE) Window but you can change the colors in the code window (Alt+F11, F7) for background, font and indicator for each of these texts: Normal, Selection, Syntax Error, Execution Point, Break Point, Comment, Keyword, Identifier, Bookmark, and Call Return.  [VBE Tools menu, Options, Editor Format (tab) ]

Browsers ☷☷☷☷  

There are bookmarklets (JavaScript code) that are stored as bookmarks that can be run in all browsers, but specific bookmarklets may be limited to one browser due to limitations in a browser.  There are several webpages with bookmarklets that involve color at squarefree.com, specifically Color Bookmarklets and Bookmarklets for Zapping Annoyances.

Related ☷☷☷☷  

Pages on this site using Color (#thissite)

• Color, Sorting on Color
• Coloring within Ranges, Examples
• Conditional Formatting,
   Finding Conditional Formatting Formulas afterwards (--identify--); CondFormula macro also on Formula page.
• Event macros, example for change event using Case statement makes use of colorindex and refers back to this page.
• Excel to HTML conversions, macros XL2HTML, XL2HTMLx and other, along with references to other HTML materials, and conversions.
• Font
• Formula page, Custom Formatting (custom number formatting), and also seen above on this page.

Newsgroup Postings on Colors (#postings)

• Coloring Capital Letters within a cell, posting by Mike Currie, 2002-12-19, in excel.misc, colors capitals Red [3], non-capitals as black [lowercase and digits with 1] and error cells with Teal [14] using a Change Event macro, I included a comparable ColorCapsCatchUp macro for use on existing cells prior to installing the Change Event macro.  You can search Google Groups for the string Characters(Start:= for additional examples of formatting or coloring parts of text strings.
• Coloring for Day of Week in a Macro, Bob Phillips, 2004-01-25.
• RGB Colors posted collection of links by Tom Ogilvy (2000-05-10).  -- and it doesn't even have the varied names of colors recognized by some of the browsers.
• Showing the Color dialog, showing the user assigned colors

Other Pages on Colors in Excel (#otherxl)

• Chip Pearson ’s "Functions For Cell Colors".  Nice functions but no examples there, see my examples above.
• Conditional Chart Examples, Jon Peltier, how to change the formatting of a chart ’s plotted points (markers, bar fill color, etc.) based on the values of the points
• Excel code to modify Excel chart palette colors -- The PowerPoint FAQ, Brian Reilly.  The supplied code are mostly variations of black to point out that excel is not applying the actual RGB but the ColorIndex. (archive 2001-12-22, posted).
• Colour Palette Tool, Ed Ferrero, to modify the colour palette, and save it as a small file that can be distributed (newusers, 206-02-15).

Colorblind (#colorblind)

• How do things look to colorblind people?
• ColorBrewer, by Cindy Brewer some color schemes for color separations as on maps (qualitative), as on population densities (sequential),  as emphasis on low and high values as in ages (diverging). Shows whether good for color-blind, photocopy, LCD projector, CRT-friendly, printer friendly.   For what I tried, the choices are so distinct that I did't see any problems on my laptop (32 bit color) even though marked as not good for laptops.  [color choices, also see Jenks below] --- Maybe I can't find what I thought was there
• Vischeck: VischeckURL, color blindness check of your designated web page (URL) as seen by someone with Deuteranope (a form of red/green color deficit), Protanope (another form of red/green color deficit), Tritanope (a blue/yellow deficit- very rare).  Look further into site and the numbers are adjustable for further testing.  The displays on this site use technology licensed by Stanford University.
• Color Scheme Designer 3, Simulate color vision deficiency.

Other Pages Making Use of Color (#other)

• Changing Font color for certain words within a cell, Dave Peterson, macro, 2003-05-28 [also see Font page]
• Color, Sorting on Color, not recommended, at least not in any Excel through Excel 2000, but the topic does come up. 
• A Color Picker Dialog Box, John Walkenbach, Tip49.  An alternative to not being able to determine the current selected color in the color palette dialog boxes (xlDialogColorPalette). 
• Coloring within Ranges, Examples
• Color Palette Generator, degraeve, Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette (10 colors) that matches the image.  Useful in creating a website color palette that matches a key image to be used for a website. [referened by Favicon Generator]
• Color Tools, links provided at Univ. Of Minnesota
• Conditional Formatting was introduced with Excel 97 and is a terrific feature, but there is a limit of 3 conditional sets per cell grouping (like 3 wishes).  Conditional Formatting, while in effect for a cell, will override the text colors that can be produced for numeric values by normal cell formatting. 
• Conversion to Grayscale, a chapter in a book available online about color Grokking the GIMP by Carey Bunks.
• Jenks Natural Breaks, part of the Virtual Geography Department Project described in Cartography Working Group of the Department of Geography, Dartmouth College.
• Logos and Graphics into headers/footers, you can assign the top rows of your spreadsheet for use as headers to include logos, logos in color, and to include fonts in color.  Fonts are available only in one color in the actual headings and footings-- black.  For footers you are out of luck as far as alternatives to black.
• Office 2007: Using Color in Excel and PowerPoint, 2007, Excel and PowerPoint provide a number of common colors for quick access from the FILL buttons on the Ribbon. If you prefer to use a different color or a customized color from the dialog color box.
• Security hardware encryption, terms for similar information: cryptography, encryption, stenography, digital watermarks
• Restore Hyperlink Style, restore normal hyperlink colors and formatting
• Rowliner «, Chip Pearson.  RowLiner add-in allows you have Excel automatically draw row and/or column lines around the active cell, making it easier to view rows and columns, especially when gridlines are not visible.  But you lose the ability to use undo (Ctrl+Z) with macros and with addins.
• Setting Colors and Safe Colors in HTML, Dave Raggett's Introduction to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
• Using Colors in Excel Charts, PTS Blog, Jon Peltier by Jon Peltier
• Worksheet Change Events, shows changing color of cells upon Change.

Other Things not necessary related to Colors (#font)

• FONT, test for BOLD with ISBOLD(cell) UDF.
• FONTINFO macro on Formula page.

Problems formatting color (#problems)

• Can't see font on a black background:  When formatting Cell Comment or Text Box format the FONT from the Font tab, changing the line color under the Color Tab will not affect the font. (2004-03-31, McRitchie, misc)
• Printer out of a color of ink.
• File, Page Setup, Sheet, Print B&W — will remove interior color, and will print font, and borders in black.  Print Preview shows up same as Printed copy (in black and white).
• Use of a template such as book.xlt and sheet.xlt
• Use of Format, Style can seem like a template was used to set up colors, but can't find any such format.  Format, Style, should be normal and no shading
• Colors are only missing on monitor, due to High Contrast Accessibility option.  A variation of same problem: The fill color, the fill pattern, or the line color of a WordArt or AutoShape object in an Office document does not change
• Also see companion page – Colors as seen on Monitor, and in Preview and Print, which attempts to show what you might see.
• You see a lot of gray (grey) on the sheet and you may see big page numbers.  That would be page break Preview, eliminate with Eliminate with  View, Normal
• Excel 2003 apply the Service Pack, can't find anything on printing problems, but have been told it fixes some kind of problem. Always be sure to keep your software updated. Description of the Excel 2003 post-Service Pack 1 hotfix package: February 20, 2005. Though there is a scaling problem with margins print 1 pages wide by 1 pages tall.

Printers, Printing and colors -- How Printers work (#printers)

• How Printers Work [The PC Technology Guide], referenced in a LockerGnome newsletter 2001-08-08]
• InkJet printers and other types, glossary of color printer terminology
• See how Printer settings of “Print with Black Ink” and page setup -- Sheet -- Print B&W Only.  See how these settings affect what you see.

Microsoft Knowledge DataBase   (#mskb)

Q97600 Printed Colors Different than on Screen:  Blue is Purple, etc.  This is not a problem with your printer driver, with Microsoft Windows, or with your printer.  RGB colors (light) are additive.  CMYK colors (pigments) are subtractive.  Color-Matching Blues [PC Magazine Apr 9, 1996].

Q149170 - Sample Visual Basic Code to Create Color Index Table
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=149170

Q170781 XL: RGB Function May Map to Incorrect Color
The color property accepts an RGB triple and maps it to the nearest color index.  When the property retrieves the color value, it returns the RGB color of the index, which may be different from the value you typed. In the example, RGB(65,0,0) is mapped to Dark Red (RGB(128,0,0)), but RGB(64,0,0) is mapped to Black (RGB(0,0,0)).

Q157202 - XL97: Color Palette Looks Different in MS Excel 97
 http://support.microsoft.com/?id=157202
Q211533 - XL2000: Color Palette Looks Different in Microsoft Excel 2000
 http://support.microsoft.com/?id=211533
Q291293 - XL2002: Color Palette Looks Different in Microsoft Excel 2002
 http://support.microsoft.com/?id=291293

288412 XL2002: How to Change the Color Palette for Workbooks

Q163230 - Thick Borders May Not Be Printed in Low Printer Resolution (163230) -- When you print thick borders in Microsoft Excel, the borders may be partially printed, or the borders may not be printed at all.

Q320531 -- OFF: Changes to Fill Color and Fill Pattern Are Not Displayed, 
Incorrect/missing colors may occur with use of High Contrast under Display tab of Accessibility Options.  Colors don't show on monitor however, you may be able to see the changes in print preview and on a printed page.  Also see Problems topic.

Microsoft MSDN   (#msdn)

ColorIndex Property, article within Office Web Components in MSDN (shows the color palette).

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