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Discussion on: Taking colors to the next (CSS) level

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yutamago profile image
Yutamago

"f means sixteen, a means ten"

Yes and no. In this example you're looking at #f2a, wherein f is shorthand for ff (which you correctly demonstrate) and therefore does not mean 16 but 255.
And the hex value f alone would be 15 in decimal instead of 16. Remember the word hexadecimal literally stands for 16 numbers, from 0 until 15. You cannot represent a value of 16 in one digit.

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ingosteinke profile image
Ingo Steinke • Edited

absolutely right, it's fifteen, not sixteen! off by one error, still good enough for a rough pragmatic estimation, but factually wrong anyway. Thanks for pointing out!

"f means fifteen" is even easier to remember!

f like "fifteen"
d like "dreizehn" (German for thirteen)
c like "zwölf" (at least phonetically, again in German)