Color temperature converter

Colour temperature describes the hue of a light source in kelvins (K). Low values are warm and orange, like candlelight, while high values are cool and bluish, like an overcast sky. Photographers, lighting designers and developers simulating light or setting display white points use it constantly. This converter turns a Kelvin value into an approximate RGB colour you can see and use.

How to use it

1. Enter a temperature in kelvins, for example 2700 or 6500.
2. See the colour preview and copy its RGB or hex value.

Reference values

• 1,900 K: candle flame, deep orange.
• 2,700 K: warm white household LED and incandescent bulbs.
• 3,000 to 3,500 K: halogen and warm office lighting.
• 4,000 K: neutral white, common in offices and kitchens.
• 5,500 K: photographic daylight and camera flash.
• 6,500 K: D65, the white point of sRGB displays and the web.
• 7,000 to 10,000 K: shade and overcast sky, distinctly blue.

How the conversion works

The colour of an ideal black-body radiator at a given temperature is approximated with curve-fitted formulas (such as the widely used Tanner Helland approximation) for the red, green and blue channels. For example, 2700 K gives roughly rgb(255 169 87), while 6500 K is close to rgb(255 249 253), nearly white.

Limitations

Real light sources, especially LEDs and fluorescent tubes, are not perfect black bodies, so their actual colour can lean green or magenta. The result is an approximation for previews and visual work, not a colorimetric measurement.