How to convert HEX RGB color codes to UIColor?

Question

I have an RGB hex code like #ffffff as NSString and want to convert that into an UIColor. Is there a simple way to do that?

If you don't want to do this with code you can have a look at [http://uicolor.io/](http://uicolor.io/). Converts easily HEX & RGB to UIColor for both Swift & Objective-C plus there is a color picker just in case... — manosim, Dec 26 '14 at 20:27
Just an update - the url of `http://uicolor.io/` has changed [http://uicolor.xyz](http://uicolor.xyz) — manosim, Jan 09 '16 at 12:11

Dave DeLong · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-27T15:54:23.113

In some code of mine, I use 2 different functions:

void SKScanHexColor(NSString * hexString, float * red, float * green, float * blue, float * alpha) {
  NSString *cleanString = [hexString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"#" withString:@""];
  if([cleanString length] == 3) {
      cleanString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@%@%@%@%@", 
                     [cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1)],[cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1)],
                     [cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, 1)],[cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, 1)],
                     [cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(2, 1)],[cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(2, 1)]];
  }
  if([cleanString length] == 6) {
      cleanString = [cleanString stringByAppendingString:@"ff"];
  }

  unsigned int baseValue;
  [[NSScanner scannerWithString:cleanString] scanHexInt:&baseValue];

  if (red) { *red = ((baseValue >> 24) & 0xFF)/255.0f; }
  if (green) { *green = ((baseValue >> 16) & 0xFF)/255.0f; }
  if (blue) { *blue = ((baseValue >> 8) & 0xFF)/255.0f; }
  if (alpha) { *alpha = ((baseValue >> 0) & 0xFF)/255.0f; }
}

And then I use it like this:

UIColor * SKColorFromHexString(NSString * hexString) {
  float red, green, blue, alpha;
  SKScanHexColor(hexString, &red, &green, &blue, &alpha);

  return [UIColor colorWithRed:red green:green blue:blue alpha:alpha];
}

If you prefer to use this as a UIColor category, then it's just a matter of altering a few lines:

+ (UIColor *) colorFromHexString:(NSString *)hexString {
  NSString *cleanString = [hexString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"#" withString:@""];
  if([cleanString length] == 3) {
      cleanString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@%@%@%@%@%@", 
                     [cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1)],[cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(0, 1)],
                     [cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, 1)],[cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(1, 1)],
                     [cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(2, 1)],[cleanString substringWithRange:NSMakeRange(2, 1)]];
  }
  if([cleanString length] == 6) {
      cleanString = [cleanString stringByAppendingString:@"ff"];
  }

  unsigned int baseValue;
  [[NSScanner scannerWithString:cleanString] scanHexInt:&baseValue];

  float red = ((baseValue >> 24) & 0xFF)/255.0f;
  float green = ((baseValue >> 16) & 0xFF)/255.0f;
  float blue = ((baseValue >> 8) & 0xFF)/255.0f;
  float alpha = ((baseValue >> 0) & 0xFF)/255.0f;

  return [UIColor colorWithRed:red green:green blue:blue alpha:alpha];
}

This will handle strings like "#abc", "#abcdef31", etc.

I understand everything up to: `((baseValue >> 24) & 0xFF)`. (I get the division by 255.0f). Could you explain how you arrive at shifting 24, 16, and 8 bits? And also, why are you &'ing with 0xFF? Thank you :) — Matt H., Nov 30 '12 at 06:19
Maybe the correct answer, but is some kind of "funny" heard this: "Is there a simple way to do that?" and we need to write a book to do it. — Sulfkain, Nov 19 '14 at 15:30

score 84 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 15:27

84

If you are using Hex Values..

#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue) [UIColor \
       colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 \
       green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 \
       blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]

  //Then use any Hex value

 self.view.backgroundColor = UIColorFromRGB(0xD2691E);

answered Sep 27 '10 at 15:27

k-thorat

4,873
1
27
36

I wish Apple would be adding this into their header files! no reason why not! – ishahak Jan 22 '14 at 02:48

score 35 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 06 '13 at 08:50

35

I was looking for a simple solution and came up with this (not completely Objective-C, but works like a charm):

NSString *stringColor = @"#AABBCC";
NSUInteger red, green, blue;
sscanf([stringColor UTF8String], "#%02X%02X%02X", &red, &green, &blue);

UIColor *color = [UIColor colorWithRed:red/255.0 green:green/255.0 blue:blue/255.0 alpha:1];

answered Mar 06 '13 at 08:50

Bhatia

351
3
2

1

Thanks for posting this, it works excellent for me! Wish I could give you +10 votes. – rog Apr 09 '13 at 02:26
Very elegant solution! +1 – Vitalii Gozhenko Sep 05 '13 at 16:45

Jim Rhoades · Answer 4 · 2014-01-30T16:52:41.973

19

There is a nice category for UIColor called "UIColor+Expanded" which has a class method for getting a UIColor from an RGB hex string:

It's simple to use:

UIColor *myColor = [UIColor colorWithHexString:@"FF0000"];

Plus it adds a lot of other potentially useful utilities to UIColor. More info is available in this article.

edited Jan 30 '14 at 16:52

answered Jul 01 '11 at 20:19

Jim Rhoades

3,310
3
34
50

It doesn't show any problems but it doesn't work, I imported UIColor+Expanded.h and UIColor+Expanded.m. Heres the line. self.navigationController.navigationBar.tintColor = [UIColor colorWithHexString:@"#555555"]; – Souljacker Sep 03 '11 at 19:29
1

@Ravin455 You probably need to take out that # symbol (as shown in my original answer). – Jim Rhoades Sep 07 '11 at 11:38
1

The link for the category is broken. – Ricardo Sanchez-Saez Apr 09 '13 at 10:29
Try colorWithHexString and colorWithName from: https://github.com/phonegap/phonegap-plugins/blob/master/iPhone/NotificationEx/UIColor-Expanded.m – Mark Phillip Sep 01 '13 at 19:01
I updated the original post to point to the new location of UIColor+Expanded, which is here: https://github.com/erica/uicolor-utilities/tree/master/Color – Jim Rhoades Jan 30 '14 at 17:00

score 10 · Answer 5 · answered May 05 '12 at 00:49

10

Easy, Just go to this website and type in your hex value: http://www.corecoding.com/utilities/rgb-or-hex-to-float.php

answered May 05 '12 at 00:49

MikeTheCoder

963
3
12
24

Awesome website! Thank you – Septronic Sep 08 '15 at 23:02

ChikabuZ · Answer 6 · 2013-10-16T19:43:21.230

+ (UIColor *)colorWithHexString:(NSString *)colorString
{
    colorString = [colorString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"#" withString:@""];

    if (colorString.length == 3)
        colorString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%c%c%c%c%c%c",
        [colorString characterAtIndex:0], [colorString characterAtIndex:0],
        [colorString characterAtIndex:1], [colorString characterAtIndex:1],
        [colorString characterAtIndex:2], [colorString characterAtIndex:2]];

    if (colorString.length == 6)
    {
        int r, g, b;
        sscanf([colorString UTF8String], "%2x%2x%2x", &r, &g, &b);
        return [UIColor colorWithRed:(r/255.0) green:(g/255.0) blue:(b/255.0) alpha:1.0];
    }
    return nil;
}

for format #123, 123, #fff195, fff195

+ (UIColor *)colorWithHexValue:(int)hexValue
{
    float red   = ((hexValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16)/255.0;
    float green = ((hexValue & 0xFF00) >> 8)/255.0;
    float blue  = (hexValue & 0xFF)/255.0;
    return [UIColor colorWithRed:red green:green blue:blue alpha:1.0];
}

for format 0xfff195

score 5 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 09 '13 at 07:02

5

The easiest way that I found: Hex to UIColor Converter

Just type the hex number without '#', and it returns the UIColor code. For example the code for the orange color (#f77f00) is:

[UIColor colorWithRed:0.969 green:0.498 blue:0 alpha:1.0]

answered Apr 09 '13 at 07:02

Ehsan

1,022
11
20

1

Dead link. This still works: http://www.corecoding.com/utilities/rgb-or-hex-to-float.php – mm2001 Oct 13 '15 at 16:31
Link in answer is dead. – Pang Apr 12 '19 at 01:34

Eugene · Answer 8 · 2019-04-13T02:19:58.633

3

I created an online tool to instantly convert any hex code to a UIColor code snippet for Swift and Objective-C, for when it's inconvenient to use custom methods or plugins: https://iosref.com/uihex/

edited Apr 13 '19 at 02:19

answered Apr 27 '15 at 20:38

Eugene

3,417
5
25
49

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 14 '18 at 17:45

If converting from ObjectiveC to swift is hard for you, here's the answer with Swift. Currently it only takes strings without the #, but you can add a scanner method to skip it I believe.

func stringToColor(stringColor: String) -> UIColor {
    var hexInt: UInt32 = 0
    let scanner = NSScanner(string: stringColor)
    scanner.scanHexInt(&hexInt)
    let color = UIColor(
        red: CGFloat((hexInt & 0xFF0000) >> 16)/255,
        green: CGFloat((hexInt & 0xFF00) >> 8)/255,
        blue: CGFloat((hexInt & 0xFF))/255,
        alpha: 1)

    return color
}

score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 15:19

3

I think I'd split the six characters into three pairs, then convert that to decimal, then divide that by 255 to get each color component as a float.

You can then pass the components to:

[UIColor colorWithRed: green: blue: alpha:1];

answered Sep 27 '10 at 15:19

Codebeef

43,508
23
86
119

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 15:47

If you don't want to write all of this code above, you can check this site: http://www.diovo.com/apps/rgb-to-uicolor-converter.html
From an HEX color like this: #FFFFFF, the site convert it in a string like this:

UIColor *aColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:1 green:1 blue:1 alpha:1.000];

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 13 '12 at 16:22

1

Don't forget that you have the option to convert your hex values to RGB and enter them in the interface builder. It'll save some lines of code.

rgb sliders

answered Jul 13 '12 at 16:22

Kyle Clegg

38,547
26
130
141

Jonathon Hibbard · Answer 13 · 2019-06-13T20:24:51.463

Guess this is a bit late here... but I found this version in the WhiteHouse Github repo that does it in a pretty elegant way:

+(UIColor *)colorFromRGBHexString:(NSString *)colorString {
    if(colorString.length == 7) {
        const char *colorUTF8String = [colorString UTF8String];
        int r, g, b;
        sscanf(colorUTF8String, "#%2x%2x%2x", &r, &g, &b);
        return [UIColor colorWithRed:(r / 255.0) green:(g / 255.0) blue:(b / 255.0) alpha:1.0];
    }    
    return nil;
}

Source Link to their WHAppConfig.m on github

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Sep 18 '14 at 17:53

I think there is an even easier way when using HEX values. Just add a definition at the top of your file or reference a header file for the conversion (UIColorFromRGB). You can even add a template of fixed HEX color values.

#define CLR_YELLOW_TEXT     0xf4dc89    // A Light Yellow text
#define CLR_GREEN_TEXT      0x008040    // Dark Green text for my buttons

#define UIColorFromRGB(rgbValue)  [UIColor colorWithRed:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF0000) >> 16))/255.0 green:((float)((rgbValue & 0xFF00) >> 8))/255.0 blue:((float)(rgbValue & 0xFF))/255.0 alpha:1.0]

Then just reference it in your code using the HEX values directly or your defined hex values. For example...

[myButton1 setTitleColor:UIColorFromRGB(0xd02d2d) forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[myButton2 setTitleColor:UIColorFromRGB(CLR_GREEN_TEXT) forState:UIControlStateNormal];
[myButton3 setTitleColor:UIColorFromRGB(CLR_YELLOW_TEXT) forState:UIControlStateNormal];

(PS - This assumes an Alpha of 1.0, but it can always be changed in the definition).

Enjoy.

score 0 · Answer 15 · answered Jul 29 '15 at 21:14

0

I found a cocoapod library very useful in creating UIColor using "#RRGGBB" values.

pod 'UIColor-HexRGB'

answered Jul 29 '15 at 21:14

Ramesh

1,703
18
13

score 0 · Answer 16 · edited Jul 28 '16 at 14:02

+(UIColor*)colorWithHexString:(NSString*)hexString

{

NSString *cString = [[hexString stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:[NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]] uppercaseString];

if ([cString length] < 6) return [UIColor grayColor];

if ([cString hasPrefix:@"0X"]) cString = [cString substringFromIndex:2];

if ([cString length] != 6) return  [UIColor grayColor];

NSRange range;
range.location = 0;
range.length = 2;
NSString *rString = [cString substringWithRange:range];

range.location = 2;
NSString *gString = [cString substringWithRange:range];

range.location = 4;
NSString *bString = [cString substringWithRange:range];

unsigned int r, g, b;
[[NSScanner scannerWithString:rString] scanHexInt:&r];
[[NSScanner scannerWithString:gString] scanHexInt:&g];
[[NSScanner scannerWithString:bString] scanHexInt:&b];

return [UIColor colorWithRed:((float) r / 255.0f)
                       green:((float) g / 255.0f)
                        blue:((float) b / 255.0f)
                       alpha:1.0f];

}

How to convert HEX RGB color codes to UIColor?

16 Answers16

Linked

Related