Color Temperature to RGB
Convert a light color temperature in Kelvin (1000K–12000K) to an approximate RGB color, as used in photography and lighting design.
How to use this tool
- Enter a color temperature in Kelvin (1000–12000).
- The tool uses the Tanner Helland algorithm to approximate the RGB color.
- Common values: 2700K (incandescent), 4000K (cool white), 6500K (daylight).
Convert light color temperature (Kelvin) to an approximate RGB value. Warm candlelight is ~2000K, daylight is ~6500K, and a blue sky can be 10000K+.
Frequently asked questions
- What is color temperature?
- Color temperature describes the hue of a light source on a scale from warm (reddish, low Kelvin) to cool (bluish, high Kelvin). It comes from blackbody radiation physics.
- Is this conversion exact?
- No — it is an approximation by Tanner Helland (2012) that gives perceptually good results for the visible daylight range. Exact conversion requires spectral power distribution data.