How to convert a HTML name string into a UIColor
Swift version: 5.0
HTML color names let you use familiar titles like "steel blue" and "mint cream" rather than hex values, but sadly these standardized names aren't available in iOS – or at least not by default. Fortunately, it's easy to add an extension to UIColor that maps these names to hexadecimal color values, then add another extension to convert hex colors to UIColors. Here's the code:
extension UIColor {
public convenience init?(hexString: String) {
let r, g, b, a: CGFloat
if hexString.hasPrefix("#") {
let start = hexString.index(hexString.startIndex, offsetBy: 1)
let hexColor = hexString.substring(from: start)
if hexColor.count == 8 {
let scanner = Scanner(string: hexColor)
var hexNumber: UInt64 = 0
if scanner.scanHexInt64(&hexNumber) {
r = CGFloat((hexNumber & 0xff000000) >> 24) / 255
g = CGFloat((hexNumber & 0x00ff0000) >> 16) / 255
b = CGFloat((hexNumber & 0x0000ff00) >> 8) / 255
a = CGFloat(hexNumber & 0x000000ff) / 255
self.init(red: r, green: g, blue: b, alpha: a)
return
}
}
}
return nil
}
public convenience init?(name: String) {
let allColors = [
"aliceblue": "#F0F8FFFF",
"antiquewhite": "#FAEBD7FF",
"aqua": "#00FFFFFF",
"aquamarine": "#7FFFD4FF",
"azure": "#F0FFFFFF",
"beige": "#F5F5DCFF",
"bisque": "#FFE4C4FF",
"black": "#000000FF",
"blanchedalmond": "#FFEBCDFF",
"blue": "#0000FFFF",
"blueviolet": "#8A2BE2FF",
"brown": "#A52A2AFF",
"burlywood": "#DEB887FF",
"cadetblue": "#5F9EA0FF",
"chartreuse": "#7FFF00FF",
"chocolate": "#D2691EFF",
"coral": "#FF7F50FF",
"cornflowerblue": "#6495EDFF",
"cornsilk": "#FFF8DCFF",
"crimson": "#DC143CFF",
"cyan": "#00FFFFFF",
"darkblue": "#00008BFF",
"darkcyan": "#008B8BFF",
"darkgoldenrod": "#B8860BFF",
"darkgray": "#A9A9A9FF",
"darkgrey": "#A9A9A9FF",
"darkgreen": "#006400FF",
"darkkhaki": "#BDB76BFF",
"darkmagenta": "#8B008BFF",
"darkolivegreen": "#556B2FFF",
"darkorange": "#FF8C00FF",
"darkorchid": "#9932CCFF",
"darkred": "#8B0000FF",
"darksalmon": "#E9967AFF",
"darkseagreen": "#8FBC8FFF",
"darkslateblue": "#483D8BFF",
"darkslategray": "#2F4F4FFF",
"darkslategrey": "#2F4F4FFF",
"darkturquoise": "#00CED1FF",
"darkviolet": "#9400D3FF",
"deeppink": "#FF1493FF",
"deepskyblue": "#00BFFFFF",
"dimgray": "#696969FF",
"dimgrey": "#696969FF",
"dodgerblue": "#1E90FFFF",
"firebrick": "#B22222FF",
"floralwhite": "#FFFAF0FF",
"forestgreen": "#228B22FF",
"fuchsia": "#FF00FFFF",
"gainsboro": "#DCDCDCFF",
"ghostwhite": "#F8F8FFFF",
"gold": "#FFD700FF",
"goldenrod": "#DAA520FF",
"gray": "#808080FF",
"grey": "#808080FF",
"green": "#008000FF",
"greenyellow": "#ADFF2FFF",
"honeydew": "#F0FFF0FF",
"hotpink": "#FF69B4FF",
"indianred": "#CD5C5CFF",
"indigo": "#4B0082FF",
"ivory": "#FFFFF0FF",
"khaki": "#F0E68CFF",
"lavender": "#E6E6FAFF",
"lavenderblush": "#FFF0F5FF",
"lawngreen": "#7CFC00FF",
"lemonchiffon": "#FFFACDFF",
"lightblue": "#ADD8E6FF",
"lightcoral": "#F08080FF",
"lightcyan": "#E0FFFFFF",
"lightgoldenrodyellow": "#FAFAD2FF",
"lightgray": "#D3D3D3FF",
"lightgrey": "#D3D3D3FF",
"lightgreen": "#90EE90FF",
"lightpink": "#FFB6C1FF",
"lightsalmon": "#FFA07AFF",
"lightseagreen": "#20B2AAFF",
"lightskyblue": "#87CEFAFF",
"lightslategray": "#778899FF",
"lightslategrey": "#778899FF",
"lightsteelblue": "#B0C4DEFF",
"lightyellow": "#FFFFE0FF",
"lime": "#00FF00FF",
"limegreen": "#32CD32FF",
"linen": "#FAF0E6FF",
"magenta": "#FF00FFFF",
"maroon": "#800000FF",
"mediumaquamarine": "#66CDAAFF",
"mediumblue": "#0000CDFF",
"mediumorchid": "#BA55D3FF",
"mediumpurple": "#9370D8FF",
"mediumseagreen": "#3CB371FF",
"mediumslateblue": "#7B68EEFF",
"mediumspringgreen": "#00FA9AFF",
"mediumturquoise": "#48D1CCFF",
"mediumvioletred": "#C71585FF",
"midnightblue": "#191970FF",
"mintcream": "#F5FFFAFF",
"mistyrose": "#FFE4E1FF",
"moccasin": "#FFE4B5FF",
"navajowhite": "#FFDEADFF",
"navy": "#000080FF",
"oldlace": "#FDF5E6FF",
"olive": "#808000FF",
"olivedrab": "#6B8E23FF",
"orange": "#FFA500FF",
"orangered": "#FF4500FF",
"orchid": "#DA70D6FF",
"palegoldenrod": "#EEE8AAFF",
"palegreen": "#98FB98FF",
"paleturquoise": "#AFEEEEFF",
"palevioletred": "#D87093FF",
"papayawhip": "#FFEFD5FF",
"peachpuff": "#FFDAB9FF",
"peru": "#CD853FFF",
"pink": "#FFC0CBFF",
"plum": "#DDA0DDFF",
"powderblue": "#B0E0E6FF",
"purple": "#800080FF",
"rebeccapurple": "#663399FF",
"red": "#FF0000FF",
"rosybrown": "#BC8F8FFF",
"royalblue": "#4169E1FF",
"saddlebrown": "#8B4513FF",
"salmon": "#FA8072FF",
"sandybrown": "#F4A460FF",
"seagreen": "#2E8B57FF",
"seashell": "#FFF5EEFF",
"sienna": "#A0522DFF",
"silver": "#C0C0C0FF",
"skyblue": "#87CEEBFF",
"slateblue": "#6A5ACDFF",
"slategray": "#708090FF",
"slategrey": "#708090FF",
"snow": "#FFFAFAFF",
"springgreen": "#00FF7FFF",
"steelblue": "#4682B4FF",
"tan": "#D2B48CFF",
"teal": "#008080FF",
"thistle": "#D8BFD8FF",
"tomato": "#FF6347FF",
"turquoise": "#40E0D0FF",
"violet": "#EE82EEFF",
"wheat": "#F5DEB3FF",
"white": "#FFFFFFFF",
"whitesmoke": "#F5F5F5FF",
"yellow": "#FFFF00FF",
"yellowgreen": "#9ACD32FF"
]
let cleanedName = name.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "").lowercased()
if let hexString = allColors[cleanedName] {
self.init(hexString: hexString)
} else {
return nil
}
}
}With that done, here's how you create a color:
let steelBlue = UIColor(name: "steel blue")LEARN SWIFTUI FOR FREE I wrote a massive, free SwiftUI tutorial collection, and also have a growing list of free SwiftUI tutorials on YouTube – get started today!
Available from iOS 2.0
Did this solution work for you? Please pass it on!
Other people are reading…
- How to convert a hex color to a UIColor
- How to create custom colors using UIColor RGB and hues
- How to read the red, green, blue, and alpha color components from a UIColor
- How to use semantic colors to help your iOS app adapt to dark mode
- How to use an image for your background color with UIColor(patternImage:)
About the Swift Knowledge Base
This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.
