What is the difference between `lightgrey` and `lightgray` in CSS?

Question

I am using Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 to edit my CSS. When I wanted to use a light gray color, the IntelliSense suggested me this:

Is there any difference?

Schaffhausen

Pretty easy to lookup yourself: w3.org/TR/css3-color – Oxendine

Other than a Hamming distance of 1? – Ablution

Answer 1

According to CSS3 Color, there is no difference:

┌────────────┬─────────┬─────────────┐
│ Color name │ Hex rgb │   Decimal   │
├────────────┼─────────┼─────────────┤
│ lightgray  │ #d3d3d3 │ 211,211,211 │
│ lightgrey  │ #d3d3d3 │ 211,211,211 │
└────────────┴─────────┴─────────────┘

Pennyworth

Probably included just to cater to both US and UK spellings – Vertebra

@Vertebra Digging deeper - probably because both spellings were standard X11 color names, which is where CSS got most of its named colors from. – Parliament

Answer 2

en-US:

.foo { color: gray; }

en-UK:

.foo { colour: grey; }

since colouris not supported, use gray

Gumdrop

Answer 3

They are exactly the same color , check this article for more information.

Gray is the more popular spelling in the US, while grey reigns supreme in the UK.

Mielke

The question is whether there's a technical difference, not what the words mean from a linguistic standpoint. – Parliament

Did you read They are exactly the same color part of my answer ? @duskwuff – Mielke

The article that you're linking is talking about the English language meaning of the words. While it's true in this case that they're also identical in this particular programming meaning, English language and computers don't always agree — consider "referer" vs. "referrer", for instance. – Parliament

Answer 4

I've found in IE7 that "lightgrey" maps to a light grey/gray color but "lightgray" maps to a darker grey/gray. So I'd recommend you use the rgb values to get the color you desire across older browsers.

Osteen

Answer 5

lightgray is not supported by IE ≤7; lightgrey is supported though.
That's the difference.

Oneway

Answer 6

Thats confusing I think its the IntelliSense dictionary problem in US dictionary its spelled as LIGHTGRAY and in UK dictionary its LIGHTGREY. But it should give same color value.

Encephalography