HEX to Colortone
Find the closest named color for any HEX code.
Type a HEX value or pick a color – the result updates instantly.
Preview
HEX to Colortone – Find the Closest Color Name
Paste a HEX code and get a name you can actually say out loud. #3B7DD8 becomes SteelBlue, #FF6F61 becomes Salmon. The tool lists the six nearest CSS named colors with their own HEX codes and a ΔE score, so you can pick the label that fits best.
Naming colors for design handoff
Hex codes are precise but forgettable. In a design review nobody remembers whether the button was #3B7DD8 or #3B7ED8, but everyone remembers "the steel blue button". Teams use color names to:
- label tokens in Figma libraries and style guides (
--color-steel), - write readable Jira tickets and pull request descriptions,
- talk about palettes in meetings without reading hex digits aloud.
The name is a label, not a replacement – keep the exact HEX in your tokens.
How the match is scored
A naive tool would measure straight-line distance between RGB numbers, but RGB is not perceptually even: a step of 20 in green looks larger than the same step in blue. This tool converts each color to CIELAB and applies CIEDE2000, the formula the CIE published in 2001 to match how people actually judge color differences. The result, ΔE, is a single number:
| ΔE | Meaning |
|---|---|
| under 1 | not perceptible |
| 1 – 2 | very close |
| 2 – 5 | close |
| 5 – 10 | similar |
| over 10 | rough match |
Worked example
For #3B7DD8 the ranking is SteelBlue (#4682B4, ΔE 4.79), DodgerBlue (#1E90FF, ΔE 7.53), RoyalBlue (#4169E1, ΔE 7.94), and CornflowerBlue (#6495ED, ΔE 8.76). SteelBlue wins on hue and lightness even though RoyalBlue has a more similar blue channel.
If your color starts as channel numbers, use RGB to Colortone; to go from a name back to a code, try Colortone to HEX.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a colortone?
On FowTools, a colortone is the human-readable name of a color. The tool compares your HEX code with the 141 CSS named colors and returns the one that looks most similar, such as SteelBlue for #3B7DD8.
How is the closest color name chosen?
Both colors are converted to the CIELAB color space and compared with the CIEDE2000 formula (ΔE). The name with the smallest ΔE is the closest match, and the next five candidates are listed as well.
What does a ΔE of 4.79 mean?
It means the two colors are close but a trained eye can tell them apart side by side. Below 1 the difference is practically invisible, 1 to 2 is very close, 2 to 5 is close, 5 to 10 is similar, and above 10 the name is only a rough description.