tikz add tag
samcarter
I occasionally convert svg images to tikz with the help of [svg2tikz](https://github.com/kjellmf/svg2tikz). The resulting tikz code uses hex colour names in the format of `crrggbb` in which `r`, `g` and `b` are hexadecimal figures, e.g. `cffa500`. 

To use this code I normally either have to add suitable definitions in my document, e.g. `\definecolour{cffa500}{HTML}{ffa500}` or I have to replace all the colours by defined colours. Both is a bit laborious if I just want to have a quick look at the image.

That's why I am wondering if one might hack xcolor so that instead of throwing an undefined colour error, it tests if the missing colour starts with `c` and if yes defines this missing colour on the fly. (This will cause strange problems if there are other undefined colours starting with `c`, but I'm willing to take this risk)

The following code seems to work for commands like `\color` and `\textcolor`, but if I try to use it with tikz, it fails with `! Package xcolor Error: Undefined color cffa500.`. 



```
\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{xstring}
\usepackage{xpatch}
\usepackage{tikz}

\makeatletter
\xpatchcmd{\XC@split@viii}{\c@lor@error{`\@@nam'}\def\@@nam{black}}{%
	\def\colorprefix{c}%
	\StrSplit{#1}{1}{\firstletter}{\restletter}%
	\if\firstletter\colorprefix
		\definecolor{#1}{HTML}{\restletter}%
		\def\@@nam{#1}%
	\else
		\c@lor@error{`\@@nam'}\def\@@nam{black}%
	\fi  
}{\typeout{patching xcolor sucess}}{\typeout{patching xcolor failure}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\textcolor{cffa500}{\rule{2cm}{2cm}}
\textcolor{c10a500}{\rule{2cm}{2cm}}

%\tikz{\path[fill=cffa500] (0,0) circle[radius=2];}

\end{document}
```

P.S. in case someone is wondering why not simply define all possible hex colours? An input file with a complete list of them is about 600 MB and I have yet to find out how long it takes to input this list into a document because the job is still running ... either it takes a really long time which is impractical or it hangs indefinitely
Top Answer
user 3.14159
I think that the patch is not complete, for instance `\colorlet` also leads to an error. So I am wondering if defining your own fill may be an option.

```
\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{xstring}
\usepackage{xpatch}
\usepackage{tikz}

\makeatletter
\xpatchcmd{\XC@split@viii}{\c@lor@error{`\@@nam'}\def\@@nam{black}}{%
	\def\colorprefix{c}%
	\StrSplit{#1}{1}{\firstletter}{\restletter}%
	\if\firstletter\colorprefix
		\definecolor{#1}{HTML}{\restletter}%
		\def\@@nam{#1}%
	\else
		\c@lor@error{`\@@nam'}\def\@@nam{black}%
	\fi  
}{\typeout{patching xcolor sucess}}{\typeout{patching xcolor failure}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\textcolor{cffa500}{\rule{2cm}{2cm}}
\textcolor{c10a500}{\rule{2cm}{2cm}}
%\colorlet{mycolor}{cffa500} %<also fails

\tikzset{Fill/.code={\StrSplit{#1}{1}{\firstletter}{\restletter}%
\definecolor{#1}{HTML}{\restletter}%
\tikzset{fill=#1}
}}

\tikz{\fill[Fill=cffa500] (0,0) circle[radius=2];}

\end{document}
```

![Screen Shot 2020-01-23 at 10.16.53 AM.png](/image?hash=dee8d749e53737ed737a1965fafc11b44f3584eb32fa73085a5c38d6c00afa66)
Answer #2
samcarter
@marmots great answer made me realize that I was totally barking up the wrong tree. Instead of trying to hack `xcolor`, one can tackle the problem from the `tikz` side. 

One possibility (probably not the best) is to hook into the definition of `\pgfsetfillcolor`

```
\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{xstring}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzlings}

\makeatletter
\def\pgfsetfillcolor#1{%
	\def\colorprefix{c}%
	\StrLen{#1}[\colorlenght]%
	\StrSplit{#1}{1}{\firstletter}{\restletter}%
	\if\firstletter\colorprefix%
			\ifnum\colorlenght=7%
				\definecolor{#1}{HTML}{\restletter}%
			\fi%
	\fi%
  \pgfutil@colorlet{pgffillcolor}{#1}%
  \pgfutil@ifundefined{applycolormixins}{}{\applycolormixins{pgffillcolor}}%
  \expandafter\let\expandafter\pgf@temp\csname\string\color@pgffillcolor\endcsname
  % for arrow tips:
  \global\let\pgf@fillcolor@global=\pgf@temp
  \expandafter\pgf@setfillcolor\pgf@temp
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}


\begin{tikzpicture}

\marmot

\path[fill=cyan] (2,0) circle[radius=2];

\path[fill=cffa500] (4,0) circle[radius=2];
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}
```

Caveats:

- this will only influence fill colours, but similar could be done with strokes etc.

- it will run into a problem if combined with non hex colours that also start with `c` and also have 7 characters

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