diff --git a/demos/presentation/main.go b/demos/presentation/main.go
index b86af38..60f2e68 100644
--- a/demos/presentation/main.go
+++ b/demos/presentation/main.go
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ func main() {
 	for index, slide := range slides {
 		title, primitive := slide(nextSlide)
 		pages.AddPage(strconv.Itoa(index), primitive, true, index == currentSlide)
-		fmt.Fprintf(info, `%d ["%d"][cyan]%s[white][""]  `, index+1, index, title)
+		fmt.Fprintf(info, `%d ["%d"][darkcyan]%s[white][""]  `, index+1, index, title)
 	}
 
 	// Create the main layout.
diff --git a/demos/textview/main.go b/demos/textview/main.go
index 528827b..6eaf9d2 100644
--- a/demos/textview/main.go
+++ b/demos/textview/main.go
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ func main() {
 	go func() {
 		for _, word := range strings.Split(corporate, " ") {
 			if word == "the" {
-				word = "[red]the[white]"
+				word = "[#ff0000]the[white]"
 			}
 			if word == "to" {
 				word = fmt.Sprintf(`["%d"]to[""]`, numSelections)
diff --git a/textview.go b/textview.go
index 1b2709e..1ba5bc2 100644
--- a/textview.go
+++ b/textview.go
@@ -11,21 +11,9 @@ import (
 	runewidth "github.com/mattn/go-runewidth"
 )
 
-// textColors maps color strings which may be embedded in text sent to a
-// TextView to their tcell counterparts.
-var textColors = map[string]tcell.Color{
-	"red":     tcell.ColorRed,
-	"white":   tcell.ColorWhite,
-	"yellow":  tcell.ColorYellow,
-	"blue":    tcell.ColorBlue,
-	"green":   tcell.ColorGreen,
-	"cyan":    tcell.ColorDarkCyan,
-	"magenta": tcell.ColorDarkMagenta,
-}
-
 // Regular expressions commonly used throughout the TextView class.
 var (
-	colorPattern  *regexp.Regexp // Initialized in the init() function.
+	colorPattern  = regexp.MustCompile(`\[([a-zA-Z]+|#[0-9a-zA-Z]{6})\]`)
 	regionPattern = regexp.MustCompile(`\["([a-zA-Z0-9_,;: \-\.]*)"\]`)
 )
 
@@ -72,8 +60,9 @@ type textViewIndex struct {
 //
 //   This is a [red]warning[white]!
 //
-// will print the word "warning" in red. The following colors are currently
-// supported: white, yellow, blue, green, red, cyan, magenta.
+// will print the word "warning" in red. You can provide W3C color names or
+// hex strings starting with "#", followed by 6 hexadecimal digits. See
+// tcell.GetColor() for more information.
 //
 // Regions and Highlights
 //
@@ -489,7 +478,7 @@ func (t *TextView) reindexBuffer(width int) {
 			// Skip any color tags.
 			if currentTag < len(colorTags) && pos >= colorTagIndices[currentTag][0] && pos < colorTagIndices[currentTag][1] {
 				if pos == colorTagIndices[currentTag][1]-1 {
-					color = textColors[colorTags[currentTag][1]]
+					color = tcell.GetColor(colorTags[currentTag][1])
 					currentTag++
 				}
 				continue
@@ -631,7 +620,7 @@ func (t *TextView) Draw(screen tcell.Screen) {
 			// Get the color.
 			if currentTag < len(colorTags) && pos >= colorTagIndices[currentTag][0] && pos < colorTagIndices[currentTag][1] {
 				if pos == colorTagIndices[currentTag][1]-1 {
-					color = textColors[colorTags[currentTag][1]]
+					color = tcell.GetColor(colorTags[currentTag][1])
 					currentTag++
 				}
 				continue
diff --git a/util.go b/util.go
index e4a5188..2505aba 100644
--- a/util.go
+++ b/util.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package tview
 
 import (
 	"math"
-	"regexp"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 
@@ -75,16 +74,6 @@ func init() {
 			return len([]rune(text)) <= maxLength
 		}
 	}
-
-	// Regular expressions.
-	var colors string
-	for color := range textColors {
-		if len(colors) > 0 {
-			colors += "|"
-		}
-		colors += color
-	}
-	colorPattern = regexp.MustCompile(`\[(` + colors + `)\]`)
 }
 
 // Print prints text onto the screen into the given box at (x,y,maxWidth,1),