Help:Link color
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{{hatnote|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.}}
{{Wikipedia how-to|shortcut1=H:LC|shortcut2=WP:LINKCOLOR}}
{{Warning link color}}
{{Linking and page manipulation|linking and diffs}}
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.
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Standard colors
{{anchor|blue link|blue ink}}
class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+Standard link colors, in Vector 2022 and other skins | ||||
scope="col" rowspan="2" style="width:12%" | Link color
! scope="col" rowspan="2" | Type ! scope="col" colspan="2" | Vector 2022 ! scope="col" colspan="2" | Other skins | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
scope="col" style="width:12%" | Color code
! scope="col" | Color ! scope="col" style="width:12%" | Color code ! scope="col" | 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) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#3366CC}} | #0645AD = rgb(6,69,173) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#0645AD}} |
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) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#795CB2}} | #0B0080 = rgb(11,0,128) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#0B0080}} |
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) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#BF3C2D}} | #BA0000 = rgb(186,0,0) | style="text-align:center;"style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#BA0000}} |
light maroon link
| Link to a Wikipedia page that does not currently exist, but that you have visited | #A55858 = rgb(165,88,88) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#A55858}} | #A55858 = rgb(165,88,88) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#A55858}} |
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 | colspan=2 {{n/a|not yet defined}} | #772233 = rgb(119,34,51) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#772233}} | |
blue link (Vector 2022) light blue link 1 (other skins) light blue link 2 (other skins) | {{anchor|light blue link}}Link to a page at another wiki, usually another Wikimedia project or an external link. | #3366CC = rgb(51,102,204) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#3366CC}} | #3366BB = rgb(51,102,187) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#3366BB}} |
purple link (Vector 2022) purple link (other skins) | Link to a page on another site that has been visited | #795CB2 = rgb(121,92,178) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#795CB2}} | #663366 = rgb(102,51,102) | style="text-align:center;"| {{color box|#663366}} |
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
{{see|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=
{{see|Template:Color}}
For normal text, the {{tl|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)
- {{tlc|color|orange|Hello, world!}} → {{color|orange|Hello, world!}}
- {{tlc|color|#00F000|Hello, world!}} → {{color|#00F000|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 ==
{{See|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 {{tl|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.
- {{tlc|colored link|2=orange|3=Canada}} → {{colored link|Orange|Canada}}
- {{tlc|colored link|2=#00F000|3=Page name to link|4=Alternative text}} → {{colored link|#00F000|Page name to link|Alternative text}}
;Or
You can turn links a different color like so:
{{markupv|m=
|r=
}}
Or, if you desire existence checking, you can try:
{{markupv|m=
|r=
}}
== External links ==
A similar styled span can be added within an external link:
{{markupv|m=
[http://example.com Example external link]
|r=
- [http://example.com 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 a:link { color: #0000FF; } /* normal unvisited links */
.mw-body-content a:link:visited { color: #0B0080; } /* visited links */
.mw-body-content a:link:active { color: #FF0000; } /* active links */
.mw-body-content a:link.new { color: #FF0000; } /* new links */
.mw-body-content a:link.extiw { color: #3366BB; } /* interwiki links */
.mw-body-content a:link.external { color: #3366BB; } /* external links */
.mw-body-content a:link.stub { color: #772233; } /* hovered links */
.mw-body-content a:link {color: #FF0000}
.mw-body-content a:visited {color: #00FF00}
.mw-body-content a:hover {color: #FF00FF}
.mw-body-content a: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 a.mw-redirect {color:#308050}
.mw-body-content a.mw-redirect:visited {color:#3070A0}
==External==
Show external links as green links:
.mw-body-content a.external {color: #008000}
.mw-body-content a.external:visited {color: #008000}
==Text decoration==
This allows formatting such as underlines. For example:
.mw-body-content a: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 a: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 {{color|#ff8921|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}}
{{Portal|Help}}
- {{tl|resize}}
- {{tl|background color}}
- {{tl|font color}} – allows setting both text and background color
- {{tl|coltit}} – colored table header cell
- {{tl|fake link}}
{{Web Colors}}
{{Help navigation}}
{{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}