Excel format colours
Excel custom format string colours
Excel's custom number format strings support colour prefixes — you can write [Red]0.00 or [Blue]#,##0 and the cell's content will render in that colour. Useful for quick conditional colouring without touching conditional formatting rules.
There are two ways to specify colours: named colours, and palette index colours.
Named colours
Only eight named colours are available:
[Black][White][Red][Green][Blue][Yellow][Magenta][Cyan]
That's the complete list. There are no others.
Palette index colours
Beyond the named set, you can reference Excel's legacy 56-colour palette by index: [Color1] through [Color56].
These map to the default workbook palette from the .xls era. In .xlsx files the palette is essentially fixed, but in older .xls files it can be overridden per workbook — so the same index might render differently in different files.
The table below is the default palette. Colours 1–16 are the most reliable, as they are hardwired in the spec. Note that several indices are genuine duplicates (e.g. Color25 mirrors Color11, Color26 mirrors Color7) — this aliasing is intentional, not an error.
| Index | Hex | Name |
|---|---|---|
| Color1 | #000000 |
Black |
| Color2 | #FFFFFF |
White |
| Color3 | #FF0000 |
Red |
| Color4 | #00FF00 |
Bright Green |
| Color5 | #0000FF |
Blue |
| Color6 | #FFFF00 |
Yellow |
| Color7 | #FF00FF |
Magenta |
| Color8 | #00FFFF |
Cyan |
| Color9 | #800000 |
Dark Red |
| Color10 | #008000 |
Green |
| Color11 | #000080 |
Dark Blue |
| Color12 | #808000 |
Dark Yellow |
| Color13 | #800080 |
Violet |
| Color14 | #008080 |
Teal |
| Color15 | #C0C0C0 |
Silver |
| Color16 | #808080 |
Grey 50% |
| Color17 | #9999FF |
Periwinkle |
| Color18 | #993366 |
Plum |
| Color19 | #FFFFCC |
Ivory |
| Color20 | #CCFFFF |
Light Turquoise |
| Color21 | #660066 |
Dark Purple |
| Color22 | #FF8080 |
Coral |
| Color23 | #0066CC |
Ocean Blue |
| Color24 | #CCCCFF |
Ice Blue |
| Color25 | #000080 |
Dark Blue (alias of Color11) |
| Color26 | #FF00FF |
Pink (alias of Color7) |
| Color27 | #FFFF00 |
Yellow (alias of Color6) |
| Color28 | #00FFFF |
Turquoise (alias of Color8) |
| Color29 | #800080 |
Purple (alias of Color13) |
| Color30 | #800000 |
Dark Red (alias of Color9) |
| Color31 | #008080 |
Teal (alias of Color14) |
| Color32 | #0000FF |
Blue (alias of Color5) |
| Color33 | #00CCFF |
Sky Blue |
| Color34 | #CCFFFF |
Light Blue |
| Color35 | #CCFFCC |
Light Green |
| Color36 | #FFFF99 |
Light Yellow |
| Color37 | #99CCFF |
Pale Blue |
| Color38 | #FF99CC |
Pink |
| Color39 | #CC99FF |
Lavender |
| Color40 | #FFCC99 |
Peach |
| Color41 | #3366FF |
Cornflower Blue |
| Color42 | #33CCCC |
Aquamarine |
| Color43 | #99CC00 |
Lime |
| Color44 | #FFCC00 |
Gold |
| Color45 | #FF9900 |
Orange |
| Color46 | #FF6600 |
Dark Orange |
| Color47 | #666699 |
Blue-Grey |
| Color48 | #969696 |
Grey 40% |
| Color49 | #003366 |
Dark Teal |
| Color50 | #339966 |
Sea Green |
| Color51 | #003300 |
Dark Green |
| Color52 | #333300 |
Olive Green |
| Color53 | #993300 |
Brown |
| Color54 | #993366 |
Plum (alias of Color18) |
| Color55 | #333399 |
Indigo |
| Color56 | #333333 |
Grey 80% |
Practical notes
The colour prefix only affects the cell's content — text, numbers, the rendered value. It does not colour the cell background.
Colour prefixes in format strings do not interact with conditional formatting rules. If a conditional format applies to the cell, the conditional format wins.
The range Color33–Color56 is where the more useful non-primary colours live: orange (Color45, Color46), gold (Color44), lime (Color43), and the darker navy and green tones in Color49–Color52.
Format strings colour the display value only. They have no effect on charts, pivot tables, or any downstream rendering that reads the underlying cell value rather than its formatted output.