This box lets you ask for a color by typing its name or its code. You can type an english or a french color name, a code (CSS, RAL, RGB, HLS, CMY, CMYK). You can also use this box to get a given color map. There are many supported syntaxes. See tables below.
Note that on some browsers (Mozilla, Netcape, Firfox), you can add colordb as a search engine.
As this is a very common way to designate a color, many syntaxes are supported:
| Syntax | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| #x | #C | The character is repeated 6 times: CCCCCC |
| #xx | #80 | The two-character pattern is repeated 3 times: 808080 |
| xxx #xxx |
ad7 | Each single character is duplicated: AADD77 |
| #xxxx | #c055 | The pattern is right padded with 2 zeros: C05500 |
| #xxxxx | #AA009 | The pattern is right padded with a zero: AA0090 |
| xxxxxx #xxxxxx |
AF00DD | This is a well-formed hexa code, so nothing special is done on it: AF00DD |
You can prefix all these patterns with the string "rgb:". Ex: "rgb:#c08". Finally, note that the sharp symbol "#" is not required for hexa code of 3 or 6 characters.
You can use numbers to set each color channel value. these values can be:
| Value type | Range | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| integer | between 0 and 255 | 128 , 255 |
| float | between 0 and 1 | 0.2 , 1.0 |
| integer+"%" | percentage between 0 and 100 | 80% , 23% |
| integer+"°" | angle between 0 and 359 | 60° , 239° |
Take care: a value of "1" is interpreted as an integer value. Therefore, it is considered as a value of 1 in the range 0-255. To specify a value of 1 as a float, you need to write "1.0". Moreover, note that even if using the angle unit (with a degree sign) is only relevant when specifying a hue, it is correctly handled for any color channel (then, setting a red value to "90°" is understoden as 25%).
These ways of specifying a value can be used to set any color channel in RGB, HLS, CMY or CMYK models. Note that it is not necessary to use the same unit for all channels. You can define a RGB by giving the red value in percentage, the green value between 0 and 255, and a blue value as a float. The only interesting case is when you set a HLS color: you can use the angle unit for the hue and percentages for he other two channels.
| Syntax | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| rgb:R,V,B | rgb:255,255,128 | Find a color by its RGB (red, green and blue) channels values. |
| hls:H,L,S | hls:60°,68%,50% | Find a color by its HLS (hue, lightness and saturation) channels values. |
| cmy:C,M,Y | cmy: 0.2, 0.9, 0.9 | Find a color by its CMY (cyan, magenta and yellow) channels values. |
| cmyk:C,M,Y,K | cmyk: 20%, 90%, 86%, 40% | Find a color by its CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) channels values. |
colordb is connected to a light database in which color codes are store: CSS, and RAL ones.
| Syntax | Examples | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| css:nom | css:fuchsia
css: indianred |
Find a color by its CSS name. |
| ral:code | ral:3012 | Find a color by its RAL code (Classic RAL, four digits). |
RAL colors are not designed for screens. Thus do not rely on their RGB nor CMYK equvalence, and note that the displayed colors are for information only.
You can also ask for a color by entering its name in english or french: the most common names are known. Using the wildcard "*" (star), you can give only a part of the name. If more than one color name matchs, they will be listed.
Examples:
When more than one color name is found, a list will be displayed under the Find box form:
Buttons let you go to the previous page 
, the next page 
, and the button 
will clear the results list.
You can use the find box input to ask for a colormap:
| Syntax | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| h:H | h:50° | Display a color map at constant hue. |
| l:L | l:128 | Display a color map at constant lightness. |
| s:S | s:80% | Display a color map at constant saturation. |
| r:R | r:0 | Display a color map at constant red level. |
| g:G | g:0.2 | Display a color map at constant green level. |
| b:B | b:255 | Display a color map at constant blue level. |
| c:C | c:50% | Display a color map at constant cyan level. |
| m:M | m:66 | Display a color map at constant magenta level. |
| y:Y | y:94% | Display a color map at constant yellow level. |
| k: | k: | Display a gray scale (no parameter required). |
Take care ! Asking for a color map will unlink the Colormap box !
Some browsers like Mozilla, Firefox or Netscape have a search bar when you can type a text, choose a search engine, and get the answer. For example, Firefox has searchs for Google, Amazon, eBay...
By clicking the 
button in the Find box, you will add colordbto this list of search engine. Then colordb will be available directly and you can type in the search bar the way you do in the Find box:
Any syntax as described above is available.
Tip: before you add colordb search engine to your browser, choose in colordb the required language and layout, because these settings will be memorized.