Color Temperature Converter

Color Temperature Converter

Color Temperature Converter turns a Kelvin value into an RGB hex colour and shows the swatch, across the full range from 1000 K to 12000 K. It includes reference points for the light sources you actually encounter.

How to use it

1. Drag the slider or type a Kelvin value between 1000 and 12000.
2. Read the hex colour and see the swatch update.
3. Compare against the reference points for common light sources.

Why higher Kelvin looks cooler

Colour temperature describes the colour of light emitted by an idealised black body heated to that temperature. Low temperatures glow red and orange. As the temperature rises the light shifts through white and into blue.

This runs directly against everyday language, where red is a warm colour and blue is a cool one. A 2700 K bulb is called warm white and a 6500 K bulb is called cool daylight, even though 6500 K is physically much hotter. The names follow how the light feels, not the physics.

Worked example

When it helps

• Matching a light source when setting white balance for photo or video.
• Choosing bulbs that match each other across a room.
• Picking a screen colour temperature for editing or for evening reading.
• Reproducing a specific lighting mood in a design.

Common mistakes

• Reading higher Kelvin as warmer. It is the opposite, and the naming convention makes this a persistent trap.
• Mixing colour temperatures in one room. Two bulbs 2000 K apart will look obviously wrong together even though each looks fine alone.
• Setting camera white balance to daylight indoors, which gives everything an orange cast from tungsten lighting.