Kelvin to RGB Converter
Turn a colour temperature into an sRGB swatch.
How to use
- 1 Type a colour temperature in Kelvin, or drag the slider.
- 2 Watch the swatch, rgb() value and hex code update live.
- 3 Read the caption to see which light source the temperature matches.
- 4 Copy the RGB or hex value for your design or CSS.
About Kelvin to RGB Converter
The Kelvin to RGB Converter translates a colour temperature, measured in Kelvin, into the sRGB colour that a blackbody radiator at that temperature appears to glow.
Photographers, videographers, lighting designers and front-end developers all reason about light in Kelvin: a warm 2700 K bulb, a neutral 4000 K panel, crisp 5500 K studio daylight, or the deep 12000 K blue of open shade.
This tool lets you see exactly what those numbers look like.
Enter a temperature or drag the slider and the swatch updates live, along with the matching rgb() string and hex code you can drop straight into CSS, a design token or a colour grade.
Under the hood it uses the well-known Tanner Helland blackbody curve fit, which closely matches the warm-to-cool progression people expect across the 1000 K to 40000 K range; values outside that range are rejected with a clear message rather than producing nonsense.
A short caption names the everyday light source — candle flame, sunset, halogen, noon daylight, overcast sky — so the number gains intuitive meaning.
Everything runs locally in your browser.
Nothing is uploaded, and the converter keeps working offline once the page has loaded, so it is a quick, private reference whenever you need to bridge between a temperature and a usable colour value.
FAQ
Is this conversion colorimetrically exact?
No. It uses the popular Tanner Helland blackbody approximation, which matches the warm-to-cool look people expect but is not a precise colorimetric transform. Treat the result as a close visual reference.
Why are very low or very high values rejected?
The curve fit is only reliable between roughly 1000 K and 40000 K. Outside that range it produces unrealistic colours, so the tool asks you to stay within those bounds.
What do common Kelvin values look like?
Around 2700 K is warm incandescent, 4000 K is neutral white, 5500 K is studio daylight, and 6500 K is the standard sRGB white point. Higher values shift toward blue.