During the lifetime of every android developer there comes a time when he has to use color transparency on android. Whether it’s to add an overlay to bring something into focus or simply create an ugly custom view that is a part of business requirements.

In this post we’ll cover how the color transparency works on android.

Understanding color transparency

On android the color can be declared in the following format
#AARRGGBB

  • AA - is the bit that’s of most interest to us in this article, it stands for alpha channel
  • RR GG BB - red, green & blue channels respectively

It is also worth noting that each channel is represented as a hexadecimal number.

Now in order to add transparency to our color we need to prepend it with hexadecimal value representing the alpha (transparency).

For example if you want to set 80% transparency value to black color (#000000) you need to prepend it with CC, as a result we end up with the following color resource #CC000000.

Below please find a list of all hexadecimal values for 0 to 100% transparency.

Transparency Hex value
100% FF
99% FC
98% FA
97% F7
96% F5
95% F2
94% F0
93% ED
92% EB
91% E8
90% E6
89% E3
88% E0
87% DE
86% DB
85% D9
84% D6
83% D4
82% D1
81% CF
80% CC
79% C9
78% C7
77% C4
76% C2
75% BF
74% BD
73% BA
72% B8
71% B5
70% B3
69% B0
68% AD
67% AB
66% A8
65% A6
64% A3
63% A1
62% 9E
61% 9C
60% 99
59% 96
58% 94
57% 91
56% 8F
55% 8C
54% 8A
53% 87
52% 85
51% 82
50% 80
49% 7D
48% 7A
47% 78
46% 75
45% 73
44% 70
43% 6E
42% 6B
41% 69
40% 66
39% 63
38% 61
37% 5E
36% 5C
35% 59
34% 57
33% 54
32% 52
31% 4F
30% 4D
29% 4A
28% 47
27% 45
26% 42
25% 40
24% 3D
23% 3B
22% 38
21% 36
20% 33
19% 30
18% 2E
17% 2B
16% 29
15% 26
14% 24
13% 21
12% 1F
11% 1C
10% 1A
9% 17
8% 14
7% 12
6% 0F
5% 0D
4% 0A
3% 08
2% 05
1% 03
0% 00

In this post we’ve learned how color transparency works on android.