HSL method
The HSL method represents colors using hue, saturation, and lightness within a color model or notation system.
Web Design Playground
A color specification method that represents colors by hue, saturation, and luminance values.
- How it is used
- Specifies CSS colors when choosing a hue, its purity, and its lightness directly.
- How deep it goes
- Defines all three components, gives their numeric ranges, and applies them in a short CSS rule.
- Examples
- Uses a purple h1 rule and practice prompts for blue and white HSL colors.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via CSS hsl() to set element colors and vary hue, saturation, or luminance deliberately.
Web Design Playground, Second Edition
The hsl() function is a CSS color function that specifies a color using hue, saturation, and lightness components.
- How it is used
- Specifies CSS colors by hue, saturation, and lightness, particularly when choosing harmonious color schemes.
- How deep it goes
- Defines all three components, gives hsl() ranges and a CSS example, then extends hue values into color-scheme relationships.
- Examples
- Uses a purple h1 declaration, red complementary and analogous hues, and red-green-blue triadic hues.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via CSS to color text and construct complementary, analogous, or triadic hue schemes.
Read how Web Design Playground, Second Edition explains HSL method →
Math for Web Design
The HSL color model represents colors using hue, saturation, and lightness components in a cylindrical coordinate system.
- How it is used
- Controls CSS colors and dynamic UI color changes through hue, saturation, and lightness.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the cylindrical model, CSS notation, color-scheme formulas, and bidirectional RGB conversion algorithms.
- Examples
- Uses purple headings, CSS-derived harmony schemes, RGB conversion functions, dark palettes, and a red-to-green reading-progress bar.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via CSS and JavaScript to tune colors, generate hue-based schemes, convert RGB values, and vary UI color dynamically.
CSS in Depth, Second Edition
The HSL color space represents colors using hue, saturation, and lightness.
- How it is used
- Represents colors cylindrically so hue and lightness adjustments are easier to reason about in CSS.
- How deep it goes
- Defines HSL’s cylindrical model and practical rationale, but stops short of detailed CSS notation or implementation syntax.
- Examples
- Uses polar-space figures, browser DevTools notation conversion, and an interactive color-picker workflow.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via browser DevTools to convert existing colors into HSL notation when compatibility matters.
Related concepts
- brightnesshas part · Brightness is the perceived or measured intensity or lightness of a color, image, visual stimulus, or light source.
- saturationhas part · Saturation is the intensity or purity of a color relative to a neutral gray, commonly expressed as a percentage.
- huehas part · Hue is the perceived color attribute identifying a color family or position on a color spectrum, independently of saturation and lightness.
- OKLCHalternative to · OKLCH is a perceptually uniform cylindrical color space representing color by lightness, chroma, and hue.
- color spacekind of · A color space is a defined coordinate system for representing colors using specified components, dimensions, or numerical values.
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