Help:Link color - Wikipedia
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This page is for technical help on coloring links in articles, for technical help on color use in articles in general, see
Help:Using colors
. For the MOS guideline on color use in articles, see
MOS:COLOR
. For color tables and a color pallette, see
MOS:COLORS
. For the WikiProject, see
Wikipedia:WikiProject Color
. For the civility essay dealing with colors, see
Wikipedia:Don't edit war over the color of templates
This help page is a
how-to guide
It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines
, and may reflect varying levels of
consensus
Shortcuts
H:LC
H:LC
WP:LINKCOLOR
WP:LINKCOLOR
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In Wikipedia, the color of a
link
shows the status of the corresponding target page. The default colors (in the default
skin
Vector 2022
) have the meanings shown in the table below. See also
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Colors
Standard colors
Standard link colors, in Vector 2022 and other skins
Link color
Type
Vector 2022
Other skins
Color code
Color
Color code
Color
blue link
(Vector 2022)
blue link
(other skins)
Link to a Wikipedia page that currently exists, but you never visited
#3366CC = rgb(51,102,204)
#0645AD = rgb(6,69,173)
purple link
(Vector 2022)
indigo link
(other skins)
Link to a Wikipedia page that exists and that you have visited
#795CB2 = rgb(121,92,178)
#0B0080 = rgb(11,0,128)
red link
(Vector 2022)
red link
(other skins)
Link to a Wikipedia page that
does not currently exist
, and you never visited
#BF3C2D = rgb(191,60,45)
#BA0000 = rgb(186,0,0)
light maroon link
Link to a Wikipedia page that does not currently exist, but that you have visited
#A55858 = rgb(165,88,88)
#A55858 = rgb(165,88,88)
maroon link
Link to a
very short article/stub
within Wikipedia, but only if the user has set a preference option to format links to stubs in this way
not yet defined
#772233 = rgb(119,34,51)
blue link
(Vector 2022)
light blue link 1
(other skins)
light blue link 2
(other skins)
Link to a page
at another wiki
, usually
another Wikimedia project
or an
external link
Note that the light blue color is used whether or not the page actually exists at the target wiki. For example, there is an article about
George Washington Carver
here on the English Wikipedia, while there is
no article of the same name
on the Japanese Wikipedia; but they do have
an article about the same man
under a different title.
#3366CC = rgb(51,102,204)
#3366BB = rgb(51,102,187)
purple link
(Vector 2022)
purple link
(other skins)
Link to a page on another site that has been visited
#795CB2 = rgb(121,92,178)
#663366 = rgb(102,51,102)
Note that the colors in the boxes may appear darker than text of the same color; also, larger or bold text will tend to look darker. Furthermore, the actual color seen by a user will vary slightly according to their operating system, desktop settings, and browser, as well as their monitor and for low-end
LCDs
, viewing angle. Logged-in users can also change the colors they see by selecting a different skin or using
custom CSS
Custom colors
Further information:
Help:Using colours
To use named CSS colors for text on a white background, refer to
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/CSS colors for text on white
for recommended colors.
Normal text
Further information:
Template:Color
For normal text, the
{{
color
}}
template with two parameters can be used: the color, either by name or hex code, and some text.
However, prose text intended for readers should never be manually colored.
MOS:PROSECOLOR
{{color|orange|Hello, world!}}
Hello, world!
{{color|#00F000|Hello, world!}}
Hello, world!
Links
Refrain from implementing colored links that may impede user ability to distinguish links from regular text, or color links for purely aesthetic reasons.
MOS:COLOR
Styling individual links on a page
Further information:
Template:Colored link
You can set the color of an individual link or set of links on a page (rather than a global change to the style of all links on Wikipedia) as follows. Setting styles in this way will apply to everyone who views those particular links or that particular page, not just you.
However, links intended for readers should never be manually colored.
MOS:LINKCOLOR
The
{{
colored link
}}
template takes two parameters to function: the color of the link, the article being linked to, with an optional third parameter for alternative text to display as a
piped link
{{colored link|orange|Canada}}
Canada
{{colored link|#00F000|Page name to link|Alternative text}}
Alternative text
Or
You can turn links a different color like so:
Markup
*[[example|This page exists.]]
*[[exampl|This page does not exist.]]
Renders as
This page exists.
This page does not exist.
Or, if you desire
existence checking
, you can try:
Markup
*[[example|{{#ifexist: example|This page exists.|This page does not exist.}}]]
*[[exampl|{{#ifexist: exampl|This page exists.|This page does not exist.}}]]
Renders as
This page exists.
This page does not exist.
External links
A similar styled span can be added within an external link:
Markup
*[http://example.com Example external link]
Renders as
Example external link
Styling all links just for you
You can also customize link colors by editing the
CSS
at your
skin subpage
. This is a change which will apply to
all
links throughout the site, but will only be visible to you.
The standard link selectors are:
a:link — defines the style for normal unvisited links
a:visited — defines the style for visited links
a:active — defines the style for active links; links become active once you click on them
a:hover — defines the style for hovered links; links hover when the mouse moves over it
Colors are defined by hexadecimal characters: see
web colors
/* standard link colors */
mw-body-content
link
color
#0000FF
/* normal unvisited links */
mw-body-content
link
visited
color
#0B0080
/* visited links */
mw-body-content
link
active
color
#FF0000
/* active links */
mw-body-content
link
new
color
#FF0000
/* new links */
mw-body-content
link
extiw
color
#3366BB
/* interwiki links */
mw-body-content
link
external
color
#3366BB
/* external links */
mw-body-content
link
stub
color
#772233
/* hovered links */
mw-body-content
link
color
#FF0000
mw-body-content
visited
color
#00FF00
mw-body-content
hover
color
#FF00FF
mw-body-content
active
color
#0000FF
Notes:
a:hover must come after a:link and a:visited
a:active must come after a:hover
you need to have ".mw-body-content" in front of the standard link definition, because otherwise the default definition on this website will still take precedence over what you have defined.
Redirect
Show redirects as green links:
mw-body-content
mw-redirect
color
#308050
mw-body-content
mw-redirect
visited
color
#3070A0
External
Show external links as green links:
mw-body-content
external
color
#008000
mw-body-content
external
visited
color
#008000
Text decoration
This allows formatting such as underlines. For example:
mw-body-content
link
color
#000000
text-decoration
underline
Possible values are:
none
underline
overline
line-through
Font family
This will change the link font:
mw-body-content
link
font-family
monospace
Preferences
The "display links to
disambiguation
pages in orange" feature, located in the
gadgets tab of the preferences menu
(under the "appearance" section), shows you all links to disambiguation pages in
orange
Scripts
User:Anomie/linkclassifier
is a popular script that customizes colors to indicate links such as pages to be deleted, nonfree-media, redirects, protected pages and more.
See also
Help desk
Help portal
{{
resize
}}
{{
background color
}}
{{
font color
}}
– allows setting both text and background color
{{
coltit
}}
– colored table header cell
{{
fake link
}}
Tools are available to help check whether the color contrast is sufficient, see
Help:COLORTOOLS
Web colors
White
Gray/Grey
Red
Yellow
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