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 AppSweep by Guardsquare helps developers automate the mobile app security testing process with fast, free scans. By using AppSweep’s actionable recommendations, developers can improve the security posture of their apps in accordance with security standards like OWASP.
Sponsor Hacking with Swift and reach the world's largest Swift community!
Available from iOS 2.0
This is part of the Swift Knowledge Base, a free, searchable collection of solutions for common iOS questions.
Link copied to your pasteboard.