Less.js Misc color() Function

Last Updated : 06 Nov, 2022

Less.js is a simple CSS pre-processor that facilitates the creation of manageable, customizable, and reusable style sheets for websites. Since CSS is a dynamic style sheet language, it is preferred. LESS is adaptable, so it works with a wide range of browsers. Only CSS that has been created and processed using the CSS pre-processor, a computer language, can be used by web browsers. In addition to providing capabilities like variables, functions, mixins, and operations to help create dynamic CSS while maintaining backward compatibility, it is a CSS language extension.

In this article, we are going to discuss the Misc color() function, whose function is to transform a string value into a color object. This function returns the color object value and this can only take hex color code, not HSL or RGB values.

Syntax:

color("string")

Parameters:

string: This is the only compulsory parameter for this function. This parameter takes the string value of the name of the color mainly a hex color code.

Please refer to the Compile LESS code into CSS code. article for the detailed description.

Example 1: The code below demonstrates the usage and implementation of the Misc color() function along with if and boolean functions.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  
<head> 
    <link rel="stylesheet" 
          type="text/css" 
          href="style.css" /> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <h1 style="color:green">GeeksforGeeks</h1> 
    <h3>Less.js Misc color() Function</h3> 
    <div class="c1"> 
        <p>boolean(iscolor("#21ff7a")) 
            <br>TRUE 
        </p> 
    </div> 
</body> 
  
</html>

style.less:

CSS

@body-bg-color: #eeeeee; 
@str: "#21ff7a"; 
@color1: color(@str); 
@color2: #381508; 
@cond: boolean(iscolor(@color1)); 
  
body { 
    background-color: @body-bg-color; 
} 
  
.c1 { 
    width: 500px; 
    height: 250px; 
    background-color: if(@cond, @color1, @color2); 
    margin: 1rem; 
} 
  
p { 
    color: if(@cond, @color2, @color1); 
    font-size: 1.5rem; 
    padding: 5rem 0 0 4.5rem; 
}

Now, to compile the above LESS code to CSS code, run the following command:

lessc style.less style.css

style.css: The compiled CSS file comes to be:

CSS

body { 
    background-color: #eeeeee; 
} 
  
.c1 { 
    width: 500px; 
    height: 250px; 
    background-color: #21ff7a; 
    margin: 1rem; 
} 
  
p { 
    color: #381508; 
    font-size: 1.5rem; 
    padding: 5rem 0 0 4.5rem; 
}

Output:

Example 2: The code below demonstrates the usage and implementation of the Misc color() function along with using saturate color operation functions with if and boolean functions.

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  
<head> 
    <link rel="stylesheet" 
          type="text/css" 
          href="style.css" /> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <h1 style="color:green">GeeksforGeeks</h1> 
    <h3>Less.js Misc color() Function</h3> 
    <div class="c1"> 
        <p>saturate(#80e619, 50%) 
            <br>boolean(iscolor("#80ff00")) 
            <br>TRUE 
        </p> 
    </div> 
</body> 
  
</html>

style.less:

CSS

@body-bg-color: #eeeeee; 
@str: "#80e619"; 
@color1: color(@str); 
@color2: #381508; 
@color3: saturate(@color1, 50%); 
@cond: boolean(iscolor(@color3)); 
  
body { 
    background-color: @body-bg-color; 
} 
  
.c1 { 
    width: 500px; 
    height: 250px; 
    background-color: if(@cond, @color3, @color2); 
    margin: 1rem; 
} 
  
p { 
    color: if(@cond, @color2, @color1); 
    font-size: 1.5rem; 
    padding: 5rem 0 0 4.5rem; 
}

Now, to compile the above LESS code to CSS code, run the following command:

lessc style.less style.css

style.css: The compiled CSS file comes to be:

CSS

body { 
    background-color: #eeeeee; 
} 
  
.c1 { 
    width: 500px; 
    height: 250px; 
    background-color: #80ff00; 
    margin: 1rem; 
} 
  
p { 
    color: #381508; 
    font-size: 1.5rem; 
    padding: 5rem 0 0 4.5rem; 
}