CGA Color Palettes

The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) offered several different palette modes with distinct color selections.

Standard 16-Color Palette

Black
#000000
Blue
#0000AA
Green
#00AA00
Cyan
#00AAAA
Red
#AA0000
Magenta
#AA00AA
Brown
#AA5500
Light Gray
#AAAAAA
Dark Gray
#555555
Light Blue
#5555FF
Light Green
#55FF55
Light Cyan
#55FFFF
Light Red
#FF5555
Light Magenta
#FF55FF
Yellow
#FFFF55
White
#FFFFFF

CGA Hardware Palettes

CGA hardware palettes on a RGBI monitor
# Mode 4 Mode 5
Palette 0 Palette 1 low intensity high intensity
low intensity high intensity low intensity high intensity
0 0 – background 0 – background 0 – background 0 – background 0 – background 0 – background
1 2 – green 10 – light green 3 – cyan 11 – light cyan 3 – cyan 11 – light cyan
2 4 – red 12 – light red 5 – magenta 13 – light magenta 4 – red 12 – light red
3 6 – brown 14 – yellow 7 – light gray 15 – white 7 – light gray 15 – white