How to convert a HTML name string into a UIColor
Swift version: 5.6
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")
SPONSORED Fernando's book will guide you in fixing bugs in three real, open-source, downloadable apps from the App Store. Learn applied programming fundamentals by refactoring real code from published apps. Hacking with Swift readers get a $10 discount!
Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!
Available from iOS 2.0
Similar solutions…
- How to load a HTML string into a WKWebView or UIWebView: loadHTMLString()
- How to convert HTML to an NSAttributedString
- How to convert a hex color to a UIColor
- How to read the red, green, blue, and alpha color components from a UIColor
- 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.
