How to get hex color value rather than RGB value?

Question

Using the following jQuery will get the RGB value of an element's background color:

$('#selector').css('backgroundColor');

Is there a way to get the hex value rather than the RGB?

Answer 1

TL;DR

Use this clean one-line function with both rgb and rgba support:

const rgba2hex = (rgba) => `#${rgba.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+\.{0,1}\d*))?\)$/).slice(1).map((n, i) => (i === 3 ? Math.round(parseFloat(n) * 255) : parseFloat(n)).toString(16).padStart(2, '0').replace('NaN', '')).join('')}`

2021 updated answer

Much time has passed since I originally answered this question. Then cool ECMAScript 5 and 2015+ features became largely available on browsers, like arrow functions, Array.map, String.padStart and template strings. Since some years, it's possible to write cross-browser one-liner rgb2hex:

const rgb2hex = (rgb) => `#${rgb.match(/^rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)$/).slice(1).map(n => parseInt(n, 10).toString(16).padStart(2, '0')).join('')}`

// Use as you wish...
console.log(rgb2hex('rgb(0,0,0)'))
console.log(rgb2hex('rgb(255, 255, 255)'))
console.log(rgb2hex('rgb(255,0,0)'))
console.log(rgb2hex('rgb(38, 170, 90)'))

It works by using a regular expression to get each digit inside the rgb string, slice(1) to get only the digits (the first result of match is the full string itself), map to iterate through each digit, each iteration converting to Number with parseInt, then back to an hexadecimal String (through a base-16 conversion), adding zero if needed via padStart. Finally, join each converted/adjusted digit to a unique String starting with '#'.

Of course, we could extend it without much effort as an one-liner rgba2hex:

const rgba2hex = (rgba) => `#${rgba.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+\.{0,1}\d*))?\)$/).slice(1).map((n, i) => (i === 3 ? Math.round(parseFloat(n) * 255) : parseFloat(n)).toString(16).padStart(2, '0').replace('NaN', '')).join('')}`

// Now it doesn't matter if 'rgb' or 'rgba'...
console.log(rgba2hex('rgb(0,0,0)'))
console.log(rgba2hex('rgb(255, 255, 255)'))
console.log(rgba2hex('rgb(255,0,0)'))
console.log(rgba2hex('rgb(38, 170, 90)'))
console.log(rgba2hex('rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.5)'))
console.log(rgba2hex('rgba(0,255,0,1)'))
console.log(rgba2hex('rgba(127,127,127,0.25)'))

And that's it. But if you want to dive deep in the old school JavaScript world, keep reading.

---

Original 2010 answer

Here is the cleaner solution I wrote based on @Matt suggestion:

function rgb2hex(rgb) {
    rgb = rgb.match(/^rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)$/);
    function hex(x) {
        return ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
    }
    return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]);
}

Some browsers already returns colors as hexadecimal (as of Internet Explorer 8 and below). If you need to deal with those cases, just append a condition inside the function, like @gfrobenius suggested:

function rgb2hex(rgb) {
    if (/^#[0-9A-F]{6}$/i.test(rgb)) return rgb;

    rgb = rgb.match(/^rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)$/);
    function hex(x) {
        return ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
    }
    return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]);
}

If you're using jQuery and want a more complete approach, you can use CSS Hooks available since jQuery 1.4.3, as I showed when answering this question: Can I force jQuery.css("backgroundColor") returns on hexadecimal format?

Answer 2

var hexDigits = new Array
        ("0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","a","b","c","d","e","f"); 

//Function to convert rgb color to hex format
function rgb2hex(rgb) {
 rgb = rgb.match(/^rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)$/);
 return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]);
}

function hex(x) {
  return isNaN(x) ? "00" : hexDigits[(x - x % 16) / 16] + hexDigits[x % 16];
 }

(Source)

Answer 3

Most browsers seem to return the RGB value when using:

$('#selector').css('backgroundColor');

Only I.E (only 6 tested so far) returns the Hex value.

To avoid error messages in I.E, you could wrap the function in an if statement:

function rgb2hex(rgb) {
     if (  rgb.search("rgb") == -1 ) {
          return rgb;
     } else {
          rgb = rgb.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+))?\)$/);
          function hex(x) {
               return ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
          }
          return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]); 
     }
}

Answer 4

Updated @ErickPetru for rgba compatibility:

function rgb2hex(rgb) {
    rgb = rgb.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+))?\)$/);
    function hex(x) {
        return ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
    }
    return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]);
}

I updated the regex to match the alpha value if defined, but not use it.

Answer 5

Here's an ES6 one liner that doesn't use jQuery:

var rgb = document.querySelector('#selector').style['background-color'];
return '#' + rgb.substr(4, rgb.indexOf(')') - 4).split(',').map((color) => parseInt(color).toString(16).padStart(2, '0')).join('');

Answer 6

Here is a version that also checks for transparent, I needed this since my object was to insert the result into a style attribute, where the transparent version of a hex color is actually the word "transparent"..

function rgb2hex(rgb) {
     if (  rgb.search("rgb") == -1 ) {
          return rgb;
     }
     else if ( rgb == 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)' ) {
         return 'transparent';
     }
     else {
          rgb = rgb.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+))?\)$/);
          function hex(x) {
               return ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
          }
          return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]); 
     }
}

Answer 7

Short

// c - color str e.g."rgb(12,233,43)", result color hex e.g. "#0ce92b"
let rgb2hex=c=>'#'+c.match(/\d+/g).map(x=>(+x).toString(16).padStart(2,0)).join``

// rgb - color str e.g."rgb(12,233,43)", result color hex e.g. "#0ce92b"
let rgb2hex= c=> '#'+c.match(/\d+/g).map(x=>(+x).toString(16).padStart(2,0)).join``

console.log(rgb2hex("rgb(12,233,43"));

Answer 8

Function that returns background color of an element in hex.

function getBgColorHex(elem){
    var color = elem.css('background-color')
    var hex;
    if(color.indexOf('#')>-1){
        //for IE
        hex = color;
    } else {
        var rgb = color.match(/\d+/g);
        hex = '#'+ ('0' + parseInt(rgb[0], 10).toString(16)).slice(-2) + ('0' + parseInt(rgb[1], 10).toString(16)).slice(-2) + ('0' + parseInt(rgb[2], 10).toString(16)).slice(-2);
    }
    return hex;
}

usage example:

$('#div1').click(function(){
   alert(getBgColorHex($(this));
}

jsfiddle

Answer 9

Readable && Reg-exp free (no Reg-exp)

I've created a function that uses readable basic functions and no reg-exps.
The function accepts color in hex, rgb or rgba CSS format and returns hex representation.
EDIT: there was a bug with parsing out rgba() format, fixed...

function getHexColor( color ){
    //if color is already in hex, just return it...
    if( color.indexOf('#') != -1 ) return color;
    
    //leave only "R,G,B" :
    color = color
                .replace("rgba", "") //must go BEFORE rgb replace
                .replace("rgb", "")
                .replace("(", "")
                .replace(")", "");
    color = color.split(","); // get Array["R","G","B"]
    
    // 0) add leading #
    // 1) add leading zero, so we get 0XY or 0X
    // 2) append leading zero with parsed out int value of R/G/B
    //    converted to HEX string representation
    // 3) slice out 2 last chars (get last 2 chars) => 
    //    => we get XY from 0XY and 0X stays the same
    return  "#"
            + ( '0' + parseInt(color[0], 10).toString(16) ).slice(-2)
            + ( '0' + parseInt(color[1], 10).toString(16) ).slice(-2)
            + ( '0' + parseInt(color[2], 10).toString(16) ).slice(-2);
}

Answer 10

Same answer like @Jim F answer but ES6 syntax , so, less instructions :

const rgb2hex = (rgb) => {
  if (rgb.search("rgb") === -1) return rgb;
  rgb = rgb.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+))?\)$/);
  const hex = (x) => ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
  return "#" + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3]);
};

Answer 11

color class taken from bootstrap color picker

// Color object
var Color = function(val) {
    this.value = {
        h: 1,
        s: 1,
        b: 1,
        a: 1
    };
    this.setColor(val);
};

Color.prototype = {
    constructor: Color,

    //parse a string to HSB
    setColor: function(val){
        val = val.toLowerCase();
        var that = this;
        $.each( CPGlobal.stringParsers, function( i, parser ) {
            var match = parser.re.exec( val ),
            values = match && parser.parse( match ),
            space = parser.space||'rgba';
            if ( values ) {
                if (space === 'hsla') {
                    that.value = CPGlobal.RGBtoHSB.apply(null, CPGlobal.HSLtoRGB.apply(null, values));
                } else {
                    that.value = CPGlobal.RGBtoHSB.apply(null, values);
                }
                return false;
            }
        });
    },

    setHue: function(h) {
        this.value.h = 1- h;
    },

    setSaturation: function(s) {
        this.value.s = s;
    },

    setLightness: function(b) {
        this.value.b = 1- b;
    },

    setAlpha: function(a) {
        this.value.a = parseInt((1 - a)*100, 10)/100;
    },

    // HSBtoRGB from RaphaelJS
    // https://github.com/DmitryBaranovskiy/raphael/
    toRGB: function(h, s, b, a) {
        if (!h) {
            h = this.value.h;
            s = this.value.s;
            b = this.value.b;
        }
        h *= 360;
        var R, G, B, X, C;
        h = (h % 360) / 60;
        C = b * s;
        X = C * (1 - Math.abs(h % 2 - 1));
        R = G = B = b - C;

        h = ~~h;
        R += [C, X, 0, 0, X, C][h];
        G += [X, C, C, X, 0, 0][h];
        B += [0, 0, X, C, C, X][h];
        return {
            r: Math.round(R*255),
            g: Math.round(G*255),
            b: Math.round(B*255),
            a: a||this.value.a
        };
    },

    toHex: function(h, s, b, a){
        var rgb = this.toRGB(h, s, b, a);
        return '#'+((1 << 24) | (parseInt(rgb.r) << 16) | (parseInt(rgb.g) << 8) | parseInt(rgb.b)).toString(16).substr(1);
    },

    toHSL: function(h, s, b, a){
        if (!h) {
            h = this.value.h;
            s = this.value.s;
            b = this.value.b;
        }
        var H = h,
        L = (2 - s) * b,
        S = s * b;
        if (L > 0 && L <= 1) {
            S /= L;
        } else {
            S /= 2 - L;
        }
        L /= 2;
        if (S > 1) {
            S = 1;
        }
        return {
            h: H,
            s: S,
            l: L,
            a: a||this.value.a
        };
    }
};

how to use

var color = new Color("RGB(0,5,5)");
color.toHex()

Answer 12

Just to add to @Justin's answer above..

it should be

var rgb = document.querySelector('#selector').style['background-color'];
return '#' + rgb.substr(4, rgb.indexOf(')') - 4).split(',').map((color) => String("0" + parseInt(color).toString(16)).slice(-2)).join('');

As the above parse int functions truncates leading zeroes, thus produces incorrect color codes of 5 or 4 letters may be... i.e. for rgb(216, 160, 10) it produces #d8a0a while it should be #d8a00a.

Thanks

Answer 13

This one looks a bit nicer:

var rgb = $('#selector').css('backgroundColor').match(/\d+/g);
var r   = parseInt(rgb[0], 10);
var g   = parseInt(rgb[1], 10);
var b   = parseInt(rgb[2], 10);
var hex = '#'+ r.toString(16) + g.toString(16) + b.toString(16);

a more succinct one-liner:

var rgb = $('#selector').css('backgroundColor').match(/\d+/g);
var hex = '#'+ Number(rgb[0]).toString(16) + Number(rgb[1]).toString(16) + Number(rgb[2]).toString(16);

forcing jQuery to always return hex:

$.cssHooks.backgroundColor = {
    get: function(elem) {
        if (elem.currentStyle)
            var bg = elem.currentStyle["backgroundColor"];
        else if (window.getComputedStyle) {
            var bg = document.defaultView.getComputedStyle(elem,
                null).getPropertyValue("background-color");
        }
        if (bg.search("rgb") == -1) {
            return bg;
        } else {
            bg = bg.match(/\d+/g);
            function hex(x) {
                return ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2);
            }
            return "#" + hex(bg[0]) + hex(bg[1]) + hex(bg[2]);
        }
    }
}

Answer 14

Since the question was using JQuery, here’s a JQuery plugin based on Daniel Elliott’s code:

$.fn.cssAsHex = function(colorProp) {

    var hexDigits = '0123456789abcdef';

    function hex(x) {
        return isNaN(x) ? '00' : hexDigits[(x - x % 16) / 16] + hexDigits[x % 16];
    };

    // Convert RGB color to Hex format
    function rgb2hex(rgb) {
        var rgbRegex = rgb.match(/^rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)$/);
        return '#' + hex(rgbRegex[1]) + hex(rgbRegex[2]) + hex(rgbRegex[3]);
    };

    return rgb2hex(this.css(colorProp));
};

Use it like:

var hexBackgroundColor = $('#myElement').cssAsHex('background-color');

Answer 15

Steven Pribilinskiy's answer drops leading zeroes, for example #ff0000 becomes #ff00.

A solution is to append a leading 0 and substring off the last 2 digits.

var rgb = $('#selector').css('backgroundColor').match(/\d+/g);
var hex = '#'+ String('0' + Number(rgb[0]).toString(16)).slice(-2) + String('0' + Number(rgb[1]).toString(16)).slice(-2) + String('0' + Number(rgb[2]).toString(16)).slice(-2);

Answer 16

Here's a solution I found that does not throw scripting errors in IE: http://haacked.com/archive/2009/12/29/convert-rgb-to-hex.aspx

Answer 17

Improved function "hex"

function hex(x){
    return isNaN(x) ? "00" : hexDigits[x >> 4] + hexDigits[x & 0xf];
    // or option without hexDigits array
    return (x >> 4).toString(16)+(x & 0xf).toString(16);
}

Answer 18

Here is my solution, also does touppercase by the use of an argument and checks for other possible white-spaces and capitalisation in the supplied string.

var a = "rgb(10, 128, 255)";
var b = "rgb( 10, 128, 255)";
var c = "rgb(10, 128, 255 )";
var d = "rgb ( 10, 128, 255 )";
var e = "RGB ( 10, 128, 255 )";
var f = "rgb(10,128,255)";
var g = "rgb(10, 128,)";

var rgbToHex = (function () {
    var rx = /^rgb\s*\(\s*(\d+)\s*,\s*(\d+)\s*,\s*(\d+)\s*\)$/i;

    function pad(num) {
        if (num.length === 1) {
            num = "0" + num;
        }

        return num;
    }

    return function (rgb, uppercase) {
        var rxArray = rgb.match(rx),
            hex;

        if (rxArray !== null) {
            hex = pad(parseInt(rxArray[1], 10).toString(16)) + pad(parseInt(rxArray[2], 10).toString(16)) + pad(parseInt(rxArray[3], 10).toString(16));

            if (uppercase === true) {
                hex = hex.toUpperCase();
            }

            return hex;
        }

        return;
    };
}());

console.log(rgbToHex(a));
console.log(rgbToHex(b, true));
console.log(rgbToHex(c));
console.log(rgbToHex(d));
console.log(rgbToHex(e));
console.log(rgbToHex(f));
console.log(rgbToHex(g));

On jsfiddle

Speed comparison on jsperf

A further improvement could be to trim() the rgb string

var rxArray = rgb.trim().match(rx),

Answer 19

My beautiful non-standard solution

HTML

<div id="selector" style="background-color:#f5b405"></div>

jQuery

$("#selector").attr("style").replace("background-color:", "");

Result

#f5b405

Answer 20

Convert RGB to Hex

I am using Jasmine protractor and I was getting errors like - Expected [ 'rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)' ] to contain '#fff'. Below function worked fine for me.

function RGBAToHexA(test:string) {
let sep = test.toString().indexOf(",") > -1 ? "," : " ";
const rgba = test.toString().substring(5).split(")")[0].split(sep);
console.log(rgba)
let r = (+rgba[0]).toString(16),
  g = (+rgba[1]).toString(16),
  b = (+rgba[2]).toString(16),
  a = Math.round(+rgba[3] * 255).toString(16);

    if (r.length == 1)
        r = "0" + r;
    if (g.length == 1)
        g = "0" + g;
    if (b.length == 1)
        b = "0" + b;
    if (a.length == 1)
        a = "0" + a;

return "#" + r + g + b + a;

}

describe('Check CSS', function() {
 
it('should check css of login page', async function(){
        browser.waitForAngularEnabled(true);
        browser.actions().mouseMove(element(by.css('.btn-auth, .btn-auth:hover'))).perform(); // mouse hover on button
        csspage.Loc_auth_btn.getCssValue('color').then(function(color){
            console.log(RGBAToHexA(color))
            expect( RGBAToHexA(color)).toContain(cssData.hoverauth.color);

        })

       

Answer 21

To all the Functional Programming lovers, here is a somewhat functional approach :)

const getHexColor = (rgbValue) =>
  rgbValue.replace("rgb(", "").replace(")", "").split(",")
    .map(colorValue => (colorValue > 15 ? "0" : "") + colorValue.toString(16))
    .reduce((acc, hexValue) => acc + hexValue, "#")

then use it like:

const testRGB = "rgb(13,23,12)"
getHexColor(testRGB)

Answer 22

my compact version

//Function to convert rgb color to hex format
function rgb2hex(rgb) {
    if(/^#/.test(rgb))return rgb;// if returns colors as hexadecimal
    let re = /\d+/g;
    let hex = x => (x >> 4).toString(16)+(x & 0xf).toString(16);
    return "#"+hex(re.exec(rgb))+hex(re.exec(rgb))+hex(re.exec(rgb));
}

Answer 23

full cases (rgb, rgba, transparent...etc) solution (coffeeScript)

 rgb2hex: (rgb, transparentDefault=null)->
    return null unless rgb
    return rgb if rgb.indexOf('#') != -1
    return transparentDefault || 'transparent' if rgb == 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)'
    rgb = rgb.match(/^rgba?\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)(?:,\s*(\d+))?\)$/);
    hex = (x)->
      ("0" + parseInt(x).toString(16)).slice(-2)

    '#' + hex(rgb[1]) + hex(rgb[2]) + hex(rgb[3])

Answer 24

Hi here's my solution after getting the element's color with Javascript

function rgb_hex(rgb_string_js){ //example: "rgb(102,54,255)"
  var new_rgb_list = rgb_string_js.replace("rgb(","").replace(")","").split(",");
  return ("#" + parseInt(new_rgb_list[0]).toString(16) + parseInt(new_rgb_list[1]).toString(16) + parseInt(new_rgb_list[2]).toString(16)); 
}

Answer 25

The colord package might be the best choice which is tiny but powerful.

import { colord } from "colord";

colord("rgb(192, 192, 192)").toHex();