Color Temperature to RGB Converter (Kelvin)
Convert a color temperature in Kelvin (1000–12000K) to an approximate sRGB color and hex, with common light-source references. Runs in your browser.
Lower temperatures look warm (orange/red), higher look cool (blue) — the opposite of the everyday “warm/cool” intuition. This uses the widely cited Tanner Helland approximation of black-body color, accurate to a few RGB levels across roughly 1000–40000 K; it is an approximation of perceived screen color, not a colorimetric (CIE) conversion. Everything runs in your browser.
General calculation reads
Amazon affiliateAs an Amazon Associate we may earn from qualifying purchases. This does not add cost for you.
About this tool
Color temperature describes the color of light emitted by an idealized 'black body' radiator heated to a given temperature, measured in kelvin (K). It is the scale photographers, videographers, lighting designers, and display engineers use to characterize the warmth or coolness of a light source or white point. Counterintuitively, lower temperatures produce warm, orange-red light (a candle is about 1900K, a household incandescent bulb about 2700K) while higher temperatures produce cool, bluish light (overcast daylight is around 6500–7500K, deep blue sky shade can exceed 10000K) — the reverse of the everyday sense of 'warm' and 'cool.' This converter turns a kelvin value into the approximate red, green, and blue values you would use to represent that light on a screen, shown as a live swatch plus hex and rgb() codes. It uses the well-known Tanner Helland approximation, a set of curve-fitted formulas that reproduce black-body color to within a few RGB levels across roughly 1000K to 40000K — accurate enough for UI swatches, white-balance previews, and lighting mockups. It is important to understand what this is and is not: it approximates the perceived on-screen color of black-body light, not a rigorous colorimetric conversion through the CIE color spaces, and it does not account for your display's gamut or calibration. For design and reference work it is plenty; for color-critical pipeline work you would use a full CIE-based transform. The reference buttons let you jump to common sources — candlelight, tungsten, daylight (D50/D65), flash, overcast — to see how each maps to RGB. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
- Drag the slider or type a color temperature in kelvin (1000–12000K typical).
- Read the resulting sRGB swatch, hex code, and rgb() values.
- Click a light-source reference (candle, daylight, etc.) to jump to its temperature.
- Copy the hex/rgb for use in your design or lighting setup.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does lower Kelvin look warmer (more orange)?
- Color temperature follows black-body physics: a cooler black body glows red/orange, a hotter one glows blue-white. So low kelvin = warm light, high kelvin = cool light — the opposite of the casual use of "warm" and "cool."
- How accurate is this conversion?
- It uses the Tanner Helland approximation, accurate to within a few RGB levels from about 1000K to 40000K. It is excellent for swatches and previews but is an approximation of perceived screen color, not a colorimetric CIE conversion.
- What are common color temperatures?
- Candle ~1900K, incandescent ~2700K, studio tungsten ~3200K, horizon daylight (D50) ~5000K, midday sun/flash ~5500K, daylight (D65) ~6500K, overcast ~7500K, blue shade ~10000K.
- What is the difference from a CIE conversion?
- A full conversion maps black-body temperature to CIE chromaticity then to your display's gamut with proper white-point handling. This tool skips that for a fast RGB estimate — fine for design, not for color-managed production pipelines.
- What is D50 vs D65?
- Standard daylight illuminants: D50 (~5000K) is the print/graphic-arts reference, D65 (~6500K) is the standard for displays and sRGB. They define a "white" reference for color work.
- Is anything uploaded?
- No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser.