If you look very closely at your monitor, you will see very tiny dots of light. Each dot is called a picture element or "pixel". Computer monitors display graphics (tables, graphs, pictures, etc) by dividing the display screen into thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of pixels depending on the monitor. The pixels are arranged in rows and columns. Each pixel is actually composed of three dots. One for Red, one for Blue, and one for Green. Those are the three "primary" colors which are "mixed" together in different combinations to make all of the other colors. The pixels are so close together that they appear to blend together. The higher quality monitors have the largest number of pixels.

          Computer monitors use different "phosphors" to display the three primary colors. The phosphors are chemicals which emit light when they are stimulated by an electrical current.  When the current is increased, the amount of light emitted also increases. There are up to 256 different shades of each of the three primary colors. To see all of them, go to the RGB Color Shades table.

          All colors on your monitor are made by combining different intensities of the three primary colors. Since there are 256 different shades for each of the three primary colors, there are thus a total of 256 X 256 X 256= 16,777,216 possible colors. Any one of those 16+ million colors can be made by each tiny pixel dot on today's computer monitors. Pictures are made up of hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of different colors. By varying the color of each pixel, any picture can be displayed.

          In order to display all of the colors on your monitor, you must have a computer with a 24 bit video card. Older computers may only have an 8 bit card. For example, in 8-bit color mode, the computer monitor uses 8 bits for each pixel, making it possible to display 2 to the 8th power or 256 different colors. On the other hand, 24 bit color makes it possible to display 2 to the 24th power or 16,777,216 different colors.

          The quality of a display system largely depends on how many pixels it can display, and how many bits are used to represent each pixel.  VGA systems display 640 by 480, or about 300,000 pixels. In contrast, SVGA systems display 800 by 600, or 480,000 pixels. True Color systems use 24 bits per pixel, allowing them to display more than 16 million different colors.

          Check to see if your monitor is set for true color. If you use Windows 95 or 98 you can click on Start, Settings, then Control Panel, then double click the display icon. Under the settings tab, check the Color Palette drop-down dialog box (located to the left about halfway down the screen) and select the highest setting available such as "True Color" or "High Color", then click "Apply".  If you use windows XP, after you click on the settings tab, under Color Quality, click on "Highest Color".

          To better understand color, we must first understand what light itself actually is. Physicists have been studying the nature of light since the time of Aristotle and to this day they do not yet have a complete understanding of it. Therefore we will only give a brief description of it. Light is an electromagnetic wave. Light may also exhibit particle like behavior. Visible light comprises only a small portion of the total electromagnetic spectrum which also includes Gamma Rays, X-Rays, Ultraviolet, and Infrared. The only difference between visible light and the rest is the size of it's wavelength.

          Light is also dependent on Chemistry. Light is produced in the Atoms of Molecules. Atoms consist of electrons which "Orbit" the Nucleus which consists of Protons and Neutrons. When an electron moves from a higher orbit to a lower one, a Photon of light is emitted. Conversely, when a Photon of light of the appropriate wavelength strikes an electron, the electron moves into a higher orbit.

          Color depends on the wavelength of light. Red light has the longest wavelength while Blue light has the shortest. When light hits an object, some of it is absorbed. The remainder is reflected. The reflected light is what we actually see with our eyes. Our eyes are designed to detect certain wavelengths of light. In order to better understand color, we must next understand how the eye works.

           Inside the eye, at the back of it is a layer of light sensitive cells which is called the Retina. There are two basic kinds of light sensitive cells. These are called rods and cones. Rods are cells which can work at very low intensity, but cannot resolve sharp images or color. Cones are cells that can resolve sharp images and color, but require much higher light levels to work. The combined information from these sensors is sent to the brain and enables us to see.

          There are three types of cone cells. Red cone cells are sensitive to red light, green cones are sensitive to green light, and blue cone cells are sensitive to blue light. Note that the same three primary colors which are displayed by the pixels on your monitor are the same three colors which are detected by cones in your eye. The brain then takes the information gathered by the cone cells and processes it to determine the overall colors in a given image. Note that the human eye cannot detect all 16+ million colors which your computer is capable of displaying. That is why it is called "True Color". True color can display all of the colors which the human eye is capable of seeing and then some.

          If you go to the RGB color shades table, you will notice that for the first twenty or so rows (RGB 0 to 20), all the colors appear to be black  Then a hint of Green starts to appear and the colors begin to brighten as you scroll down. The color is there, but either your eyes can't detect it, or your brain cannot process it. This varies from person to person. Some of us may be more perceptive than others. To best see the table, be sure to turn off all the lights and look at it at night.

          The Hexadecimal code is used to attach a label to a given color on a computer. When a web designer makes a web page, these codes are used to tell the computer which color to display on each pixel of the page. The color name may  be used instead of the hex code for some of them. When pictures are displayed, many thousands of colors may be used. Computers can display them in various formats such as a Bit Map, JPEG, etc.  To learn more go to the links page.

          To choose a color and name it, click here. Our goal is to provide names for all of the colors your monitor can make but there is no way we can do it without your help. So please register a color name today!! It's fun, easy, and your name will become a part of future history!