{{ Font color }} is how you insert colorized text, such as red, orange, green, blue and indigo, and many others. You can specify its background color at the same time.

{{ Font color }} is also how you can color wikilinks to something other than blue for when you need to work within background colors. Normally [[ wikilink ]]wikilink, but here we use a {{ font color }} with |link = to create a black wikilink →    wikilink    You can make any text link to any page using the |link= parameter.

This template will use Wikipedia:HTML5 recommendations, inserting the span tags <span style="color:color">...</span> and <span style="background-color:color">...</span>, so the page increases its readability and usability in both the wikitext and the rendered page.

{{Font color}} has a one-color and a two-color form:

{{font color | color | text }}
{{font color | text color | background color | text }}.

Either form has a |link= option, for colorizing (otherwise blue or red) wikilink text.

|link=yes[[text]]
|link=fullpagename[[fullpagename]]

You can also name the other fields.

{{font color | fg=color | text=text }}
{{font color | fg=text color | bg=background color | text=text }}

You can name |fg= or |bg=, which is nice, but... if you name either of them, you must also name |text=, which is a compromise. (See Help:Template#Parameters for why.)

Spacing is of no concern.

.{{font color|tan|green|text with four words}}..text with four words.
. {{font color|tan|green|text with four words}} .. text with four words .
. {{ font color | tan | green | text with four words }} .. text with four words .
Use / description Default value
{{{1}}} text color inherited
{{{2}}} text
link =yes or =fullpagename
Or
Use / description Default value
{{{1}}} text color inherited
{{{2}}} background color inherited
{{{3}}} text
link =yes or =fullpagename
Markup Renders as
{{ font color | green | green text }} green text
{{ font color | blue | do not style text as a link }} do not style text as a link
{{ font color || yellow | default text in yellow background }} default text in yellow background
{{ font color | bg=yellow | text = default text in yellow background }} default text in yellow background
{{ font color | white | black | white with black background }} white with black background
{{ font color | #ffffff | #000000 | white with black background }} ([[hexadecimal colors]]) white with black background (hexadecimal colors)
Markup Renders as
{{ font color | white | blue | Wikipedia:Example | link = yes }} Wikipedia:Example
{{ font color | white | blue | Wikipedia:Example | link = Wikipedia:Sandbox }} Wikipedia:Example
{{ font color | text = Wikipedia:Example | link = Wikipedia:Sandbox | bg = blue | fg = white }} Wikipedia:Example

The |link= parameter is a good way to colorize wikilinks, and it is about as much typing as the pipe trick.

Although a wikilink accepts a font color (or other template or markup):

[[Wikipedia:Example|{{font color|white|blue|the Wikipedia:Example page}}]]
the Wikipedia:Example page (a font-colored link),

a font color does not accept a wikilink, it creates wikilinks itself with |link=.

  • Green tickY {{ font color | green | violet | Wikipedia:Example | link=yes }} → Wikipedia:Example (a |link= {{ font color }})
  • ☒N{{ font color | green | violet | the [[Wikipedia:Example]] page}} → the Wikipedia:Example page (Text with [[wikilink brackets]] overrides the designated color)
  • ☒N{{ font color | green | violet | [[Wikipedia:Exammple]] }} → the Wikipedia:Exammple page (Text with [[wikilink brackets]] overrides the designated color)

For actual mainspace template usage, here are search links for