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CSS Color Module Level 5
W3C First Public Working Draft,
- This version:
- https://www.w3.org/TR/2020/WD-css-color-5-20200303/
- Latest published version:
- https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-5/
- Editor's Draft:
- https://drafts.csswg.org/css-color-5/
- Issue Tracking:
- Inline In Spec
- GitHub Issues
- Editors:
- Chris Lilley (W3C)
- Una Kravets (Google)
- Lea Verou (Invited Expert)
- Adam Argyle (Google)
- Una Kravets (Google)
- Suggest an Edit for this Spec:
- GitHub Editor
Copyright © 2020 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang). W3C liability, trademark and permissive document license rules apply.
Abstract
This module extends CSS Color [css-color-4] to add color modification functions.
CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.Status of this document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is a First Public Working Draft.
Publication as a First Public Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
GitHub Issues are preferred for discussion of this specification. When filing an issue, please put the text “css-color” in the title, preferably like this: “[css-color] …summary of comment…”. All issues and comments are archived, and there is also a historical archive.
This document was produced by the CSS Working Group.
This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
This document is governed by the 1 March 2019 W3C Process Document.
1. Introduction
This section is not normative.
Web developers, design tools and design system developers often use color functions to assist in scaling the design of their component color relations. With the increasing usage of design systems that support multiple platforms and multiple user preferences, like the increased capability of Dark Mode in UI, this becomes even more useful to not need to manually set color, and to instead have a single source from which schemes are calculated.
Currently Sass, calc() on HSL values, or PostCSS is used to do this. Preprocessors are unable to work on dynamically adjusted colors, all current solutions are restricted to the sRGB gamut and to the perceptual limitations of HSL (colors are bunched up in the color wheel, and two colors with visually different lightness, like yellow and blue, can have the same HSL lightness).
This module adds three functions: color-mix, color-contrast, and a way to modify colors.
The perceptually uniform ``lch()`` colorspace is used for mixing by default, as this has no gamut restrictions and colors are evenly distributed. However, other colorspaces can be specified, including ``hsl()`` or ``srgb`` if desired.
2. Mixing colors: the color-mix function
This function takes two <color> specifications and returns the result of mixing them, in a given colorspace, by a specified amount.
Unless otherwise specified, the mixing is done in the lch() colorspace.
Multiple color functions can be specified.
color-mix() = color-mix( <color> <color> [ <number> | <percentage> | [ <color-function> <colorspace>? ]?] )
color-function used but not defined <https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/4747>
When a plain number or percentage is specified, it applies to all color channels.
mix-color(peru lightgoldenrod 40%)
The mixing is done in lch() colorspace. Here is a top-down view, looking along the neutral L axis:
The calculation is as follows:
-
peru is lch(62.253% 54.011 63.677)
-
lightgoldenrod is lch(91.374% 31.415 98.821)
-
the mixed lightness is 62.253 * 40/100 + 91.374 * (100-40)/100 = 79.7256
-
the mixed chroma is 54.011 * 40/100 + 31.415 * (100-40)/100 = 40.4534
-
the mixed hue is 63.677 * 40/100 + 98.821 * (100-40)/100 = 84.7634
-
the mixed result is lch(79.7256% 40.4534 84.7634)
Note: interpolating on hue and chroma keeps the intermediate colors as saturated as the endpoint colors.
mix-color(red yellow 65%);
The calculation is as follows:
-
sRGB red (#F00) is lch(54.2917% 106.8390 40.8526)
-
sRGB yellow (#FF0) is lch(97.6071% 94.7077 99.5746)
-
mixed lightness is 54.2917 * 0.65 + 97.6071 * 0.35 = 69.4521
-
mixed chroma is 106.83 * 0.65 + 94.7077 * 0.35 = 102.5872
-
mixed hue is 40.8526 * 0.65 + 99.5746 * 0.35 = 61.4053
-
mixed result is lch(69.4521% 102.5872 61.4053)
-
which is a red-orange: rgb(75.3600% 65.6304% 16.9796%)
Instead of mixing all channels equally, color functions can be used to only mix certain channels. The unmixed channels in the result are copied across from the first color.
mix-color(rgb(0% 42.35% 33.33%) rgb(41.2% 69.88% 96.64%) lightness(40%));
The calculation is as follows:
-
rgb(0% 42.35% 33.33%) is lch(40.083% 32.808 171.175)
-
rgb(41.2% 69.88% 96.64%) is lch(70% 42.5 258.2)
-
mixed lightness is 40.083 * 0.4 + 70% * (1 - 0.4) = 58.0332
-
mixed result is lch(58.0332 32.808 171.175)
-
which is a rgb(26.25% 60.68% 50.72%), a lighter green
mix-color(lch(52% 58.1 22.7) lch(56% 49.1 257.1) hue(75.23%));
The calculation is as follows:
-
lch(52% 58.1 22.7)
-
lch(56% 49.1 257.1)
-
mixed hue is 22.7 * 0.7523 + 257.1 * 0.2477 = 80.76
-
mixed result is lch(52% 58.1 80.76)
When mixing hue, there are two ways round the hue range
mix-color(rgb(82.02% 30.21% 35.02%) rgb(5.64% 55.94% 85.31%) hue(75.23%) lightness(68.4%));
The calculation is as follows:
-
rgb(82.02% 30.21% 35.02%) is lch(52% 58.1 22.7)
-
rgb(5.64% 55.94% 85.31%) is lch(56% 49.1 257.1)
-
mixed hue is 22.7 * 0.7523 + 257.1 * 0.2477 = 80.76
-
new lightness is specified as 68.4%
-
mixed result is lch(68.4% 58.1 80.76) which is rgb(79.67% 62.48% 22.09%)
mix-color(red yellow lightness(30%));
The calculation is as follows:
-
sRGB red (#F00) is lch(54.2917% 106.8390 40.8526)
-
sRGB yellow (#FF0) is lch(97.6071% 94.7077 99.5746)
-
mixed lightness is 54.2917 * 0.3 + 97.6071 * 0.7 = 84.6125
-
mixed result is lch(84.6125% 106.8390 40.8526)
-
which is a very light, saturated red
-
(and well outside the gamut of sRGB: rgb(140.4967% 51.2654% 32.6891%))
-
even outside the gamut of P3: color(display-p3 1.3033 0.5756 0.4003)
-
This example demonstrates that not all colors which can be mixed, can be displayed on current devices.
This shows a desaturated result, compared to LCH interpolation, because interpolation is in a stright line on the a,b plane and can thus pass close to the central, neutral axis.
mix-color(rgb(82.02% 30.21% 35.02%) rgb(5.64% 55.94% 85.31%) lab() a(38%) b(38%));
The calculation is as follows:
-
rgb(82.02% 30.21% 35.02%) is lab(52% 53.599 22.421)
-
rgb(5.64% 55.94% 85.31%) is lab(56% -10.962 -47.861)
-
a is (53.599 * 0.38) + (-10.962 * 0.62) = 13.572
-
b is (22.421 * 0.38) + (-47.861 * 0.62) = -21.154
-
result is lab(52% 13.572 -21.154) which is rgb(52.446% 45.821% 62.953%)
color-mix to allow more than two colors?
3. Selecting the most contrasting color: the color-contrast() function
This function takes, firstly, a single color (typically a background, but not necessarily), and then second, a list of two or more colors; it selects from that list the color with highest luminance contrast [WCAG21] to the single color.
color-contrast() = color-contrast( <color> <color># )
add target contrast ratio to color-contrast?
color-contrast(wheat tan, sienna, var(--myAccent), #d2691e)
The calculation is as follows:
-
wheat (#f5deb3), the background, has relative luminance 0.749
-
tan (#d2b48c) has relative luminance 0.482 and contrast ratio 1.501
-
sienna (#a0522d) has relative luminance 0.137 and contrast ratio 4.273
Suppose myAccent has the value #b22222:
-
#b22222 has relative luminance 0.107 and contrast ratio 5.081
-
#d2691e has relative luminance 0.305 and contrast ratio 2.249
The colors in the list are tested sequentially, from left to right; a color is the temporary winner if it has the highest contrast of all those tested so far, and once the end of the list is reached, the current temporary winner is the overall winner. Thus, if two colors in the list happen to have the same contrast, the earlier in the list wins because the later one has the same contrast, not higher.
foo { --bg : hsl ( 200 50 % 80 % ); --purple-in-hsl : hsl ( 300 100 % 25 % ); color : color-contrast ( var ( --bg) hsl ( 200 83 % 23 % ), purple, var ( --purple-in-hsl)); }
The calculation is as follows:
-
--bg is rgb(179 213 230) which has relative luminance 0.628835
-
hsl(200 83% 23%) is rgb(10 75 107) which has relative luminance 0.061575 and contrast ratio 6.08409
-
purple is rgb(128 0 128) which has relative luminance 0.061487 and contrast ratio 6.08889
-
--purple-in-hsl is also rgb(128 0 128) which has relative luminance 0.061487 and contrast ratio 6.08889. This is not greater than the contrast for purple, so purple wins.
The calculated values here are shown to six significant figures, to demonstrate that early rounding to a lower precision would have given the wrong result (0.061575 is very close to 0.061487; 6.08409 is very close to 6.08889).
4. Modifying colors
Note: There are currently two proposals for modifying colors: color-adjust and Relative color syntax.
there are two proposals for color modification (proposal 1, proposal 2). The CSS WG expects that the best aspects of each will be chosen to produce a single eventual solution. <https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/3187>
4.1. Adjusting colors: the color-adjust function
This function takes one <color> specification and returns the result of adjusting that color, in a given colorspace, by a specified transform function.
Unless otherwise specified, the adjustment is done in the lch() colorspace.
Multiple color functions can be specified.
color-adjust() = color-adjust( <color> [ color-function <colorspace>? ]?] )
color-adjust(peru lightness(-20%));
The calculation is as follows:
-
peru (#CD853F) is lch(62.2532% 54.0114 63.6769)
-
adjusted lightness is 62.2532% - 20% = 42.2532%
-
adjusted result is lch(42.2532% 54.0114 63.6769)
-
which is rgb(57.58% 32.47% 3.82%)
4.2. Relative color syntax
Besides specifying absolute coordinates, all color functions can also be used with a *relative syntax* to produce colors in the function’s target color space, based on an existing color (henceforth referred to as "origin color"). This syntax consists of the keyword from, a <color> value, and optionally numerical coordinates specific to the color function. To allow calculations on the original color’s coordinates, there are single-letter keywords for each coordinate and `alpha` that corresponds to the color’s alpha. If no coordinates are specified, the function merely converts the origin color to the target function’s color space.
The following sections outline the relative color syntax for each color function.
A future version of this specification may define a relative syntax for color() as well.
4.2.1. Relative RGB colors
The grammar of the rgb() function is extended as follows:
rgb() = rgb([from <color>]? <percentage>{3} [ / <alpha-value> ]? ) | rgb([from <color>]? <number>{3} [ / <alpha-value> ]? ) <alpha-value> = <number> | <percentage>
When an origin color is present, the following keywords can also be used in this function (provided the end result conforms to the expected type for the parameter) and correspond to:
-
r is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s red channel after its conversion to sRGB
-
g is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s green channel after its conversion to sRGB
-
b is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s blue channel after its conversion to sRGB
-
alpha is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s alpha transparency
rgb(from indianred 255 g b)
This takes the sRGB value of indianred (205 92 92) and replaces the red channel with 255 to give rgb(255 92 92).
4.2.2. Relative HSL colors
The grammar of the hsl() function is extended as follows:
hsl() = hsl([from <color>]? <hue> <percentage> <percentage> [ / <alpha-value> ]? ) <hue> = <number> | <angle>
When an origin color is present, the following keywords can also be used in this function (provided the end result conforms to the expected type for the parameter) and correspond to:
-
h is a <number> that corresponds to the origin color’s HSL hue after its conversion to sRGB, normalized to a [0, 360) range.
-
s is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s HSL saturation after its conversion to sRGB
-
l is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s HSL lightness after its conversion to sRGB
-
alpha is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s alpha transparency
--accent: lightseagreen; --complement: hsl(from var(--accent) calc(h+180) s l);
lightseagreen is hsl(177deg 70% 41%), so --complement is hsl(357deg 70% 41%)
4.2.3. Relative HWB colors
The grammar of the hwb() function is extended as follows:
hwb() = hwb([from <color>]? <hue> <percentage> <percentage> [ / <alpha-value> ]? )
When an origin color is present, the following keywords can also be used in this function (provided the end result conforms to the expected type for the parameter) and correspond to:
-
h is a <number> that corresponds to the origin color’s HWB hue after its conversion to sRGB
-
w is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s HWB whiteness after its conversion to sRGB
-
b is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s HWB blackness after its conversion to sRGB
-
alpha is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s alpha transparency
4.2.4. Relative Lab colors
The grammar of the lab() function is extended as follows:
lab() = lab([from <color>]? <percentage> <number> <number> [ / <alpha-value> ]? )
When an origin color is present, the following keywords can also be used in this function (provided the end result conforms to the expected type for the parameter) and correspond to:
-
l is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s CIE Lightness
-
a is a <number> that corresponds to the origin color’s CIELab a axis
-
b is a <number> that corresponds to the origin color’s CIELab b axis
-
alpha is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s alpha transparency
-
lab(from var(--mycolor) l a b / 100%) sets the alpha of var(--mycolor) to 100% regardless of what it originally was.
-
lab(from var(--mycolor) l a b / calc(alpha * 0.8)) reduces the alpha of var(--mycolor) by 20% of its original value.
-
lab(from var(--mycolor) l a b / calc(alpha - 20%)) reduces the alpha of var(--mycolor) by 20% of 100%.
Note that all the adjustments are lossless in the sense that no gamut clipping occurs, since lab() encompasses all visible color. This is not true for the alpha adjustments in the sRGB based functions (such as’rgb()', 'hsl()', or 'hwb()'), which would also convert to sRGB in addition to adjusting the alpha transparency.
--mycolor: orchid; // orchid is lab(62.753% 52.460 -34.103) --mygray: lab(from var(--mycolor) l 0 0) // mygray is lab(62.753% 0 0) which is rgb(59.515% 59.515% 59.515%)
4.2.5. Relative LCH colors
The grammar of the lch() function is extended as follows:
lch() = lch([from <color>]? <percentage> <number> <hue> [ / <alpha-value> ]? )
When an origin color is present, the following keywords can also be used in this function (provided the end result conforms to the expected type for the parameter) and correspond to:
-
l is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s CIE Lightness
-
c is a <number> that corresponds to the origin color’s LCH chroma
-
h is a <number> that corresponds to the origin color’s LCH hue, normalized to a [0, 360) range.
-
alpha is a <percentage> that corresponds to the origin color’s alpha transparency
--mycolor: orchid; // orchid is lch(62.753% 62.571 326.973) --mygray: lch(from var(--mycolor) l 0 h) // mygray is lch(62.753% 0 326.973) which is rgb(59.515% 59.515% 59.515%)
But now (since the hue was preserved) re-saturating again
--mymuted: lch(from var(--mygray) l 30 h); // mymuted is lch(62.753% 30 326.973) which is rgb(72.710% 53.293% 71.224%)
5. Security and Privacy Considerations
This specification introduces no new security or privacy considerations.
6. Acessibility Considerations
This specification introduces a new feature to help stylesheet authors write stylesheets which conform to WCAG 2.1 section 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum).
Conformance
Document conventions
Conformance requirements are expressed with a combination of descriptive assertions and RFC 2119 terminology. The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119. However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification.
All of the text of this specification is normative except sections explicitly marked as non-normative, examples, and notes. [RFC2119]
Examples in this specification are introduced with the words “for example”
or are set apart from the normative text with class="example"
,
like this:
Informative notes begin with the word “Note” and are set apart from the
normative text with class="note"
, like this:
Note, this is an informative note.
Advisements are normative sections styled to evoke special attention and are
set apart from other normative text with <strong class="advisement">
, like
this: UAs MUST provide an accessible alternative.
Conformance classes
Conformance to this specification is defined for three conformance classes:
- style sheet
- A CSS style sheet.
- renderer
- A UA that interprets the semantics of a style sheet and renders documents that use them.
- authoring tool
- A UA that writes a style sheet.
A style sheet is conformant to this specification if all of its statements that use syntax defined in this module are valid according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature defined in this module.
A renderer is conformant to this specification if, in addition to interpreting the style sheet as defined by the appropriate specifications, it supports all the features defined by this specification by parsing them correctly and rendering the document accordingly. However, the inability of a UA to correctly render a document due to limitations of the device does not make the UA non-conformant. (For example, a UA is not required to render color on a monochrome monitor.)
An authoring tool is conformant to this specification if it writes style sheets that are syntactically correct according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature in this module, and meet all other conformance requirements of style sheets as described in this module.
Requirements for Responsible Implementation of CSS
The following sections define several conformance requirements for implementing CSS responsibly, in a way that promotes interoperability in the present and future.
Partial Implementations
So that authors can exploit the forward-compatible parsing rules to assign fallback values, CSS renderers must treat as invalid (and ignore as appropriate) any at-rules, properties, property values, keywords, and other syntactic constructs for which they have no usable level of support. In particular, user agents must not selectively ignore unsupported property values and honor supported values in a single multi-value property declaration: if any value is considered invalid (as unsupported values must be), CSS requires that the entire declaration be ignored.
Implementations of Unstable and Proprietary Features
To avoid clashes with future stable CSS features, the CSSWG recommends following best practices for the implementation of unstable features and proprietary extensions to CSS.
Implementations of CR-level Features
Once a specification reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage, implementers should release an unprefixed implementation of any CR-level feature they can demonstrate to be correctly implemented according to spec, and should avoid exposing a prefixed variant of that feature.
To establish and maintain the interoperability of CSS across implementations, the CSS Working Group requests that non-experimental CSS renderers submit an implementation report (and, if necessary, the testcases used for that implementation report) to the W3C before releasing an unprefixed implementation of any CSS features. Testcases submitted to W3C are subject to review and correction by the CSS Working Group.
Further information on submitting testcases and implementation reports can be found from on the CSS Working Group’s website at https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/. Questions should be directed to the public-css-testsuite@w3.org mailing list.
Index
Terms defined by this specification
- <alpha-value>, in §4.2.1
- color-adjust(), in §4.1
- color-contrast(), in §3
- color-mix(), in §2
- hsl(), in §4.2.2
- <hue>, in §4.2.2
- hwb(), in §4.2.3
- lab(), in §4.2.4
- lch(), in §4.2.5
- rgb(), in §4.2.1
Terms defined by reference
-
[css-color-3] defines the following terms:
- <color>
-
[css-color-4] defines the following terms:
- color()
- colorspace
-
[css-values-3] defines the following terms:
- <angle>
- <number>
- <percentage>
-
[css-values-4] defines the following terms:
- #
- ?
- {a}
- |
-
[SVG2] defines the following terms:
- r
References
Normative References
- [CSS-COLOR-3]
- Tantek Çelik; Chris Lilley; David Baron. CSS Color Module Level 3. 19 June 2018. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-3/
- [CSS-COLOR-4]
- Tab Atkins Jr.; Chris Lilley. CSS Color Module Level 4. 5 November 2019. WD. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/
- [CSS-VALUES-3]
- Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad. CSS Values and Units Module Level 3. 6 June 2019. CR. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-values-3/
- [CSS-VALUES-4]
- Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad. CSS Values and Units Module Level 4. 31 January 2019. WD. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-values-4/
- [RFC2119]
- S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. March 1997. Best Current Practice. URL: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119
- [SVG2]
- Amelia Bellamy-Royds; et al. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2. 4 October 2018. CR. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/SVG2/
- [WCAG21]
- Andrew Kirkpatrick; et al. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. 5 June 2018. REC. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/