 | This help page is ahow-to guide. It explains concepts or processes used by the Wikipedia community. It is not one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels ofconsensus. |
| Linking and page manipulation |
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In Wikipedia, the color of alink shows the status of the corresponding target page. The default colors (in the defaultskinVector 2022) have the meanings shown in the table below. See alsoWikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Colors.
| Link color | Type | Vector 2022 | Other skins | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color code | Color | Color code | 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) | #0645AD = rgb(6,69,173) | ||
| 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) | #0B0080 = rgb(11,0,128) | ||
| red link (Vector 2022) red link (other skins) | Link to a Wikipedia page thatdoes not currently exist, and you never visited | #BF3C2D = rgb(191,60,45) | #BA0000 = rgb(186,0,0) | ||
| light maroon link | Link to a Wikipedia page that does not currently exist, but that you have visited | #A55858 = rgb(165,88,88) | #A55858 = rgb(165,88,88) | ||
| maroon link | Link to avery short article/stub within Wikipedia, but only if the user has set a preference option to format links to stubs in this way | not yet defined | #772233 = rgb(119,34,51) | ||
| blue link (Vector 2022) light blue link 1 (other skins) light blue link 2 (other skins) | Link to a pageat another wiki, usuallyanother Wikimedia project or anexternal link. Note that the light blue color is used whether or not the page actually exists at the target wiki. For example, there is an article aboutGeorge Washington Carver here on the English Wikipedia, while there isno article of the same name on the Japanese Wikipedia; but they do havean article about the same man under a different title. | #3366CC = rgb(51,102,204) | #3366BB = rgb(51,102,187) | ||
| purple link (Vector 2022) purple link (other skins) | Link to a page on another site that has been visited | #795CB2 = rgb(121,92,178) | #663366 = rgb(102,51,102) | ||
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-endLCDs, viewing angle. Logged-in users can also change the colors they see by selecting a different skin or usingcustom CSS.
To use named CSS colors for text on a white background, refer toWikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/CSS colors for text on white for recommended colors.
For normal text, the{{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)
{{color|orange|Hello, world!}} →Hello, world!{{color|#00F000|Hello, world!}} →Hello, world!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)
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{{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 apiped link.
{{colored link|orange|Canada}} →Canada{{colored link|#00F000|Page name to link|Alternative text}} →Alternative textYou can turn links a different color like so:
| Markup | *[[example|<span>This page exists.</span>]]*[[exampl|<span>This page does not exist.</span>]] |
|---|---|
| Renders as |
Or, if you desireexistence checking, you can try:
| Markup | *[[example|{{#ifexist: example|<span>This page exists.</span>|This page does not exist.}}]]*[[exampl|{{#ifexist: exampl|<span>This page exists.</span>|This page does not exist.}}]] |
|---|---|
| Renders as |
A similar styled span can be added within an external link:
| Markup | *[http://example.com <span>Example external link</span>] |
|---|---|
| Renders as |
You can also customize link colors by editing theCSS at yourskin subpage. This is a change which will apply toall links throughout the site, but will only be visible to you.
The standard link selectors are:
Colors are defined by hexadecimal characters: seeweb colors.
/* standard link colors */.mw-body-contenta:link{color:#0000FF;}/* normal unvisited links */.mw-body-contenta:link:visited{color:#0B0080;}/* visited links */.mw-body-contenta:link:active{color:#FF0000;}/* active links */.mw-body-contenta:link.new{color:#FF0000;}/* new links */.mw-body-contenta:link.extiw{color:#3366BB;}/* interwiki links */.mw-body-contenta:link.external{color:#3366BB;}/* external links */.mw-body-contenta:link.stub{color:#772233;}/* hovered links */.mw-body-contenta:link{color:#FF0000}.mw-body-contenta:visited{color:#00FF00}.mw-body-contenta:hover{color:#FF00FF}.mw-body-contenta:active{color:#0000FF}
Notes:
Show redirects as green links:
.mw-body-contenta.mw-redirect{color:#308050}.mw-body-contenta.mw-redirect:visited{color:#3070A0}
Show external links as green links:
.mw-body-contenta.external{color:#008000}.mw-body-contenta.external:visited{color:#008000}
This allows formatting such as underlines. For example:
.mw-body-contenta:link{color:#000000;text-decoration:underline;}
Possible values are:
This will change the link font:
.mw-body-contenta:link{font-family:monospace}
The "display links todisambiguation pages in orange" feature, located in thegadgets tab of the preferences menu (under the "appearance" section), shows you all links to disambiguation pages inorange.
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.
