19.2.1 Specifying link colors
If you really must specify link color for some reason, always use the attributes intended for this purpose, either in the <body> tag or in CSS (see §22 Setting up CSS for HTML). You must specify three color values: for unvisited links, for active (already selected) links, and for visited links. For example:
<body link="#0000ff" alink="#ff0000" vlink="#800080" >
The defaults of blue for link and purple for vlink (the default for alink varies) are best left alone unless you have a compelling reason to use something else. An alink is in an “active” state only while the mouse is clicked on it with the button held down. The rest of the time, it is either unvisited or visited.
You can set link appearance in the attributes for the <body> tag. For example:
; link = hyperlink active color,
; alink = hyperlink color when clicked,
; vlink = visited hyperlink color, and
; #...... = your hex color for any of these
body= bgcolor="#FFFFE1" text="#000080" link="#008020" vlink="#804000"
Keep all attributes for a given element on one line, regardless of line length.
In CSS (browser-dependent at present) you could use, for example:
To override CSS-defined colors for some or all links, see §19.2.2 Specifying link class.
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