Solid black
Black cat
Dense eumelanin; often written as B- D- with non-agouti for a solid look.
Cat colors names with pictures
Cat Color Chart
Use this visual cat color chart to match common coat color names with pictures, pattern groups, and the main genetics behind each look.
Cat Colors Names With Pictures
These are the everyday coat colors people search for most often, paired with the names commonly used by cat fanciers and breeders.
Solid white
White cat
White can mask underlying color, so the visible coat may not reveal the cat's hidden genotype.
Blue / gray
Gray cat
Dilute black; cat fanciers commonly call this color blue.
Chocolate brown
Brown cat
Brown-locus variants reduce black pigment and can produce chocolate or cinnamon tones.
Orange / ginger
Orange tabby cat
The cat fancy often calls orange red; visible tabby markings are common in red cats.
Cream
Cream cat
Dilute red; faint tabby ghosting can appear, especially in young cats.
Brown tabby
Tabby cat
Agouti allows banded hairs and visible tabby markings over the base pigment.
Silver tabby
Silver tabby cat
A silver or inhibitor effect lightens the hair base while dark markings remain visible.
Black and white
Tuxedo cat
A black base color with white spotting creates the tuxedo look.
Calico
Calico cat
White spotting plus black-based and red-based patches produces the classic tri-color look.
Tortoiseshell
Tortie cat
Black-based and red-based pigment are mottled together, usually with little or no white.
Colorpoint
Siamese colorpoint cat
Temperature-sensitive colorpoint restriction concentrates pigment on the face, ears, legs, and tail.
Cat Colors and Patterns Chart
A color tells you the pigment family. A pattern tells you how that pigment is arranged on the coat. The same cat can have both, such as blue tabby, red and white, or seal tortie point.
Solid
One visible coat color with no white spotting and no strong tabby pattern. Black, blue, chocolate, cream, and white are common examples.
Examples
Black, blue, chocolate, cream, white
Tabby
Striped, spotted, classic, or ticked markings over a base color. Tabby is a pattern, not a breed.
Examples
Brown tabby, silver tabby, red tabby
Bi-color
White spotting combined with another color or pattern. A tuxedo cat is a black-and-white bi-color.
Examples
Tuxedo, blue and white, tabby and white
Parti-color
Two pigment colors appear together. Tortoiseshell is black-based plus red-based pigment; calico adds white spotting.
Examples
Tortoiseshell, calico, dilute calico
Pointed
Color is strongest on cooler body areas: face, ears, legs, and tail. The body usually stays lighter.
Examples
Seal point, blue point, flame point
Silver, Smoke, Shaded
The hair base is lightened while tips or markings keep pigment. These can be hard to identify in young kittens.
Examples
Silver tabby, black smoke, shaded silver
Cat Coat Color Genetics Chart
This simplified chart shows the loci most owners run into when trying to understand kitten colors. Real coat color can involve more genes, breed-specific naming, and hidden recessive alleles.
| Gene or locus | Symbols | Plain meaning | Visible result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agouti | A / a | Controls whether tabby markings show clearly. | A- cats show agouti/tabby expression; a/a cats tend to look solid unless another gene overrides it. |
| Brown | B / b / bl | Changes black pigment into chocolate or cinnamon tones. | Black is the dominant dense pigment; recessive combinations can look chocolate or cinnamon. |
| Dilution | D / d | Lightens dense color when a cat inherits two dilute copies. | Black becomes blue gray, red becomes cream, chocolate becomes lilac, cinnamon becomes fawn. |
| Orange | O / o | Sex-linked orange pigment on the X chromosome. | Creates red or cream cats and makes tortoiseshell or calico patterns possible in most females. |
| Colorpoint | C / cb / cs / c | Restricts pigment by temperature-sensitive expression. | Pointed cats have darker face, ears, legs, and tail with a paler body. |
| White spotting | S / s | Adds white areas over another color or pattern. | Can create tuxedo, bi-color, van, calico, or tabby-and-white cats. |
| Dominant white | W / w | Masks the underlying color. | A white cat may genetically carry colors that are hidden from view. |
Quick naming rules
- Gray cats are usually called blue in cat fancy color language.
- Orange cats are usually called red, and most show tabby markings.
- Tabby, calico, tortoiseshell, tuxedo, and colorpoint are patterns, not breeds.
- A white coat can hide the color genetics underneath.
- Kitten color can keep developing, especially smoke, shaded, silver, and pointed coats.
Use the Chart With a Calculator
Sources
The pictures on this page were generated for PurrFam using KIE's Nano Banana model and delivered through Cloudflare Images. Color naming and genetics notes were checked against these references:
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common visible cat colors and patterns include black, white, blue or gray, red or orange, cream, brown tabby, silver tabby, tuxedo, calico, tortoiseshell, and colorpoint. Color names vary by registry and breed, so a color that owners call gray is often called blue in cat fancy terminology.
Tabby is a coat pattern, not a breed. A tabby cat can be a domestic shorthair, Maine Coon, Persian, Bengal, or many other breeds and mixes. The tabby pattern can appear as mackerel stripes, classic swirls, spots, or ticking.
A tortoiseshell cat has black-based and red-based pigment mixed together, usually with little or no white. A calico cat has similar black and red color patches plus significant white spotting, which makes the patches look larger and more separated.
In cat fancy language, the dilute version of black is called blue. It usually looks gray, slate, or blue-gray to everyday owners, but breed standards and registration descriptions often use the word blue.
This page explains visible colors and the main genetics behind them. For parent-based probabilities, use PurrFam's kitten color calculator or advanced cat genetics calculator, because hidden recessive genes can change the expected outcomes.