Excel VBA ColorIndex

VBA ColorIndex Property of Excel VBA is very useful to set the fill colors, border colors and font colors. Excel VBA ColorIndex returns index values from 1 to 56, -4105 and -4142. You can set the default colors using VBA enumeration number -4105 ( or xlColorIndexAutomatic). We can set VBA colorIndex -4142 (or xlColorIndexNone) enumeration to clear the colors or set to no colors.

Syntax of Excel VBA ColorIndex

Here is the syntax of ColorIndex property of Excel VBA. You can set or return the color index value of the Excel Objects using the following VBA colorindex syntax.

expression.ColorIndex

Excel VBA Syntax to get the ColorIndex Value of the Excel Font, Interior or Border Color and store it in a Variable:

dblColorValue= expression.ColorIndex

Syntax to set the ColorIndex Value in Excel VBA to Excel Color Objects using Excel ColorIndex value:

expression.ColorIndex= IndexValue (1 to 56,-4105 or -4142)

ColorIndex in Excel VBA

Here are the list of Excel VBA ColorIndex Values and respective Colors:

VBA to Print ColorIndex Table

Here is the Excel VBA Macro to print Excel ColorIndex Values and respective colors in Excel Sheet.

Sub sbExcel_VBA_PrintColorIndex()
rowCntr = 2
colCntr = 2

For iCntr = 1 To 56

Cells(rowCntr, colCntr).Interior.ColorIndex = iCntr
Cells(rowCntr, colCntr) = iCntr
If iCntr > 1 And iCntr Mod 14 = 0 Then
    colCntr = colCntr + 1
    rowCntr = 2
Else
rowCntr = rowCntr + 1
End If

Next


End Sub

Set ColorIndex in Excel VBA

Here are the list of Excel VBA code to set ColorIndex to a Range of cells in Microsoft Excel Sheet.

Font Colors in Excel VBA

We can set the font colors in Excel VBA using ColorIndex property of Font Object. Here is the simple excel vba font color macro to set the font color of a given range A1:E20.

Sub SetFontColorIndex_Range()
    Range("A1:E20").Font.ColorIndex = 40
End Sub

You can also get the fornt colors using ColorIndex and store it in a variable. Please check the below code snippet:

myVar=Range("A1").Font.ColorIndex

This will return the font color and assign to a variable.

Interior Colors in Excel VBA

We can change the Interior or fill colors of a range using Excel VBA ColorIndex Property. Excel Interior Color macro heps you to change the interior color of an obect.

Sub SetInteriorColorIndex_Range()
    Range("A1:E20").Interior.ColorIndex = 41
End Sub

You can get Cell colors using Excel VBA, here is the get cell color excel vba macro to get the cell background colors.

myVar=Range("A1:E20").Interior.ColorIndex

Border Colors in Excel VBA

ColorIndex property of Borders is very easy to set the border colors in Excel VBA. Here is

Sub SetBordersColorIndex_Range()
Range("A1:E20").Borders.ColorIndex = 42
End Sub

Clear Colors in Excel VBA

Some times we need to fill no colors in Excel, we can clear the Excel Object colors such as font, border and fill colors and set to automatic or no fill color. Here are example macro to clear the color and fill no colors.

Clear Background Color in Excel VBA

We often required to clear the background or fill color of the excel object. We can use the following Excel Macro to clear the background colors and set no interior colors.

Sub SetClearBackgroundColor_ColorIndex_Range()
    Range("A1:E20").Interior.ColorIndex = -4142
End Sub

The above macro will set the Interior.ColorIndex to -4142 enumeration. Interior.ColorIndex = -4142 is enumeration to clear the background or fill color.

Similarly, we can clear the boder colors using Excel VBA as shown below:

Sub SetClearBorders_ColorIndex_Range()
    Range("A1:E20").Borders.ColorIndex = -4142
End Sub

We can set the font colors to default or automatic colors using Excel VBA ColorIndex property of Font object. Here is an example:

Sub SetClearFontColorIndex_Range()
    Range("A1:E20").Font.ColorIndex = -4105
End Sub

VBA Colors

We can set the colors in VBA using many approaches. We use ColorIndex Property, VBA Color Constants or set RGB Colors. We have already seen how to use ColorIndex in Excel VBA. Let us see the Excel VBA Color Constants and RGB Colors.

Excel VBA Color Constants

We can use the VBA Color Constants to set the colors of Excel Objects. Here is an easy to understand example:

Sub sbExcel_VBA_ColorConstants()
Cells(2, 4).Interior.Color = vbBlack
Cells(3, 4).Interior.Color = vbRed
Cells(4, 4).Interior.Color = vbGreen
Cells(5, 4).Interior.Color = vbYellow
Cells(6, 4).Interior.Color = vbBlue
Cells(7, 4).Interior.Color = vbMagenta
Cells(8, 4).Interior.Color = vbCyan
Cells(9, 4).Interior.Color = vbWhite

End Sub

RGB Colors in Excel VBA

We have only few color codes when we use Constants or ColorIndex Property. RGB helps us to use all possible combination of colors with Red, Green and Blue. Here is a simple Excel macro to explain the RGB in VBA.

Sub ChangeBackgourdColorRGB_Range()
    Range("A1:E20").Interior.Color = rgb(125, 205, 99)
End Sub

RGB color can be any number between 0 and 255. Here are the list of RGB colors for Excel VBA ColorIndex color codes: