Links should clearly be identifiable as links to readers.
Refrain from implementing colored links that may impede user ability to distinguish links from regular text, or color links for purely aesthetic reasons. See the guides to editing articles for accessibility at contrast and navbox colors.
It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.
In Wikipedia, the color of a link shows the status of the corresponding target page. The default colors (in the Vector skin) have the meanings shown in the table below. See also Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Colors.
Standard link colors, in Vector 2022 and other skins
Link color
Type
Vector 2022
Other skins
Color code
Color
Color code
Color
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)
Link to a Wikipedia page that does not currently exist, and you never visited
#DD3333 = rgb(221,51,51)
#BA0000 = rgb(186,0,0)
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)
Link to a very 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 page at another wiki, usually another Wikimedia project or an external 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 about George Washington Carver here on the English Wikipedia, while there is no article of the same name on the Japanese Wikipedia; but they do have an 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-end LCDs, viewing angle. Logged-in users can also change the colors they see by selecting a different skin or using custom CSS.
To use named CSS colors for text on a white background, refer to Wikipedia: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 a piped 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 style="color:Orange;">This page exists.</span>]] *[[exampl|<span style="color:green;">This page does not exist.</span>]]
Renders as
Or, if you desire existence checking, you can try:
Markup
*[[example|{{#ifexist: example|<span style="color:Orange;">This page exists.</span>|This page does not exist.}}]]
*[[exampl|{{#ifexist: exampl|<span style="color:green;">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 style="color:green;">Example external link</span>]
Renders as
You can also customize link colors by editing the CSS at your skin subpage. This is a change which will apply to all links throughout the site, but will only be visible to you.
The standard link selectors are:
Colors are defined by hexadecimal characters: see web colors.
/* standard link colors */
.mw-body-content a:link { color: #0000FF; } /* normal unvisited links */
.mw-body-content a:link:visited { color: #0B0080; } /* visited links */
.mw-body-content a:link:active { color: #FF0000; } /* active links */
.mw-body-content a:link.new { color: #FF0000; } /* new links */
.mw-body-content a:link.extiw { color: #3366BB; } /* interwiki links */
.mw-body-content a:link.external { color: #3366BB; } /* external links */
.mw-body-content a:link.stub { color: #772233; } /* hovered links */
.mw-body-content a:link {color: #FF0000}
.mw-body-content a:visited {color: #00FF00}
.mw-body-content a:hover {color: #FF00FF}
.mw-body-content a:active {color: #0000FF}
Notes:
Show redirects as green links:
.mw-body-content a.mw-redirect {color:#308050}
.mw-body-content a.mw-redirect:visited {color:#3070A0}
Show external links as green links:
.mw-body-content a.external {color: #008000}
.mw-body-content a.external:visited {color: #008000}
This allows formatting such as underlines. For example:
.mw-body-content a:link {color: #000000; text-decoration: underline; }
Possible values are:
This will change the link font:
.mw-body-content a:link {font-family: monospace}
The "display links to disambiguation pages in orange" feature, located in the gadgets tab of the preferences menu (under the "appearance" section), shows you all links to disambiguation pages in orange.
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.
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