How to get background/fill color of an Excel spreadsheet cell?

Python Help
1
  • Python 3.14 on Windows 2025 v24H2

Is it ok to post something that works here? This is how to get the background/fill colors of an Excel spreadsheet.

The openpyxl routine I have for testing:

def readexcel(xlfn):
    r"""Color results are inconsistent.
    -xlfn:  Excel filename
    
    """
    from openpyxl import load_workbook
    procname = str(inspect.stack()[0][3]) + ":"
    
    rownum = 1
    colnum = 1
    try: 
        # Load workbook with all tabs.
        wb = load_workbook(xlfn, data_only=True)
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"{procname} ERROR-openss: {e}")
    ws = wb["Sheet1"] # Get worksheet.
    
    for row in ws.iter_rows():
        for cell in row:
            # Cell contents: cell.value
            fill = cell.fill
            color = None
            if fill and fill.start_color:
                if fill.start_color.type == "rgb":
                    color = fill.start_color.rgb # like #rrggbb
                elif fill.start_color.type == "theme":
                    color = f"theme:{fill.start_color.theme}"
                elif fill.start_color.type == "indexed":
                    color = f"indexed:{fill.start_color.indexed}"
            print(f"Cell={cell.coordinate}, bgcolor={color}")
            colnum += 1
            if colnum > 10: # Stop after 2 columns
                colnum = 1
                break
        print("-----")
        rownum += 1
        if rownum > 2: # Stop after 2 rows
            break

The output I’m getting.

Print highlight colors in Excel cells v2025-10-31.01
Cell=A1, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=B1, bgcolor=theme:4
Cell=C1, bgcolor=theme:4
Cell=D1, bgcolor=theme:9
Cell=E1, bgcolor=theme:9
Cell=F1, bgcolor=theme:9
Cell=G1, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=H1, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=I1, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=J1, bgcolor=00000000
-----
Cell=A2, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=B2, bgcolor=theme:4
Cell=C2, bgcolor=theme:4
Cell=D2, bgcolor=theme:9
Cell=E2, bgcolor=theme:9
Cell=F2, bgcolor=theme:9
Cell=G2, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=H2, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=I2, bgcolor=00000000
Cell=J2, bgcolor=00000000

Rows 1 and 2 have the same colors in each column. White must be “00000000”. One source says the first 2 characters “00” is the alpha channel (opacity).

Thank you.

2

According to the Working with Styles documentation, it is aRGB and

The alpha value refers in theory to the transparency of the colour but this is not relevant for cell styles. The default of 00 will prepended to any simple RGB value:

from openpyxl.styles import Font
font = Font(color="00FF00")
font.color.rgb

'0000FF00'
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