Unfortunately, determining the hexadecimal value for more esoteric colors like "papaya whip" or "navajo white" is very difficult. You can go crazy trying to adjust the RGB triple for a color to get the shade just right, especially when each adjustment requires loading a document into your browser to view the result.
To make life easier, the HTML 3.2 standard defines sixteen standard color names that can be used anywhere a numeric color value can be used. For example, you can make all visited links in the display magenta with the following attribute and value for the body tag:
<body vlink="magenta">
The color names and RGB values defined in the HTML 3.2 standard are:
aqua (#00FFFF) | gray (#808080) | navy (#000080) | silver (#C0C0C0) |
black (#000000) | green (#008000) | olive (#808000) | teal (#008080) |
blue (#0000FF) | lime (#00FF00) | purple (#800080) | yellow (#FFFF00) |
fuchsia (#FF00FF) | maroon (#800000) | red (#FF0000) | white (#FFFFFF) |
Netscape goes well beyond the HTML 3.2 standard and supports the several hundred color names defined for use in the X Window System. Note that these color names may contain no spaces; also, the word "gray" may be spelled "grey" in any color name.
Those colors marked with an asterisk (*) actually represent a family of colors numbered one through four. Thus, there are actually four variants of blue, named "blue1," "blue2," "blue3," and "blue4," along with plain old "blue." Blue1 is the lightest of the four; blue4 the darkest. The unnumbered color name is the same color as the first; thus, blue and blue1 are identical.
Finally, if all that isn't enough, there are one hundred variants of gray (and grey) numbered 1 through 100. "Gray1" is the darkest, "gray100" is the lightest, and "gray" is very close to "gray75."
The Netscape-supported colors are:
aliceblue | darkturquoise | lightseagreen | palevioletred* |
antiquewhite* | darkviolet | lightskyblue* | papayawhip |
aquamarine* | deeppink* | lightslateblue | peachpuff* |
azure* | deepskyblue* | lightslategray | peru |
beige | dimgray | lightsteelblue* | pink* |
bisque* | dodgerblue* | lightyellow* | plum* |
black | firebrick* | limegreen | powderblue |
blanchedalmond | floralwhite | linen | purple* |
blue* | forestgreen | magenta* | red* |
blueviolet | gainsboro | maroon* | rosybrown* |
brown* | ghostwhite | mediumaquamarine | royalblue* |
burlywood* | gold* | mediumblue | saddlebrown |
cadetblue* | goldenrod* | mediumorchid* | salmon* |
chartreuse* | gray | mediumpurple* | sandybrown |
chocolate* | green* | mediumseagreen | seagreen* |
coral* | greenyellow | mediumslateblue | seashell* |
cornflowerblue | honeydew* | mediumspringgreen | sienna* |
cornsilk* | hotpink* | mediumturquoise | skyblue* |
cyan* | indianred* | mediumvioletred | slateblue* |
darkblue | ivory* | midnightblue | slategray* |
darkcyan | khaki* | mintcream | snow* |
darkgoldenrod* | lavender | mistyrose* | springgreen* |
darkgray | lavenderblush* | moccasin | steelblue* |
darkgreen | lawngreen | navajowhite* | tan* |
darkkhaki | lemonchiffon* | navy | thistle* |
darkmagenta | lightblue* | navyblue | tomato* |
darkolivegreen* | lightcoral | oldlace | turquoise* |
darkorange* | lightcyan* | olivedrab* | violet |
darkorchid* | lightgoldenrod* | orange* | violetred* |
darkred | lightgoldenrodyellow | orangered* | wheat* |
darksalmon | lightgray | orchid* | white |
darkseagreen* | lightgreen | palegoldenrod | whitesmoke |
darkslateblue | lightpink* | palegreen* | yellow* |
darkslategray* | lightsalmon* | paleturquoise* | yellowgreen |