A hex triplet is a six-digit, three-byte hexadecimal number used in HTML, CSS, SVG, and other computing applications to represent colors. The bytes represent the red, green and blue components of the color. One byte represents a number in the range 00 to FF (in hexadecimal notation), or 0 to 255 in decimal notation. This represents the least (0) to the most (255) intensity of each of the color components. Thus web colors specify colors in the True Color (24-bit RGB) color scheme.

Dealing with HEX colors in iOS is problematic and can become quite repetitive, we've long waited for Apple to do something about this but nothing has really happened.

This is why I created Hex, a simple tiny extension to UIColor that helps you in this case. It works nicely with both Objective-C and Swift.

Installation

pod 'Hex'

Create color

Swift

import Hex

let redColor = UIColor(hex: "FF0000")

Objective-C

@import Hex;

UIColor *color = [[UIColor alloc] initWithHex:@"FF0000"];

Translucency

HEX doesn't support translucency, since it's only RGB, but we thought why it shouldn't? That's why you can append the translucency percentage at the end of your HEX string.

Some examples:

UIColor(hex: "#ff0000")   => UIColor.red
UIColor(hex: "#ff000075") => UIColor.red.withAlphaComponent(0.75)
UIColor(hex: "#ff000050") => UIColor.red.withAlphaComponent(0.50)

Check for equal colors

Using isEqual on UIColor doesn't work when you create the color from an HEX string, this is because how UIKit handles colors. That's why before comparing a color you have to convert the colors to RGBSpace. Luckly Hex contains a helper method that helps you checking for equal colors, internally this method normalizes the color space of colors.

let blackHex = UIColor(hex: "000000")
let black = UIColor.black

if blackHex.isEqualTo(black) {
    // Do something
}

UIColor *blackHex = [[UIColor alloc] initWithHex: @"000000"];
UIColor *black = [UIColor blackColor];

if ([blackHex isEqualTo:black]) {
    // Do something
}

Be Awesome

If something looks stupid, please create a friendly and constructive issue, getting your feedback would be awesome.

Have a great day.

Author

Elvis Nuñez, @3lvis

License

Hex is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.