Currently, users need to specify the HEX for the background color. It makes way more sense to provide them a color picker.

I think we should require hex colors to make it more likely that they'll go to UX to get nice colors instead of picking their own gross colors.

As discussed in bug 903166 comment 4, Firefox (unlike the other browsers) still does not natively support input[type=color]. Until bug 547004 gets closed, we'd need to shim this in like we did for themes. Basta doesn't want that, and FWIW, Firefox really ought to add that HTML5 form field. Shims suck.

(In reply to Christopher Van Wiemeersch [:cvan] from comment #2) > Firefox really ought to add that HTML5 form field. As you can see in bug 547004 and related bugs, there is some work on going to add this form field. I don't know in which version of Firefox it will be ready and enabled by default though.

FYI, input type color is going to be activated on desktop versions of Firefox 28, as per bug 930277 (only missing in metro mode for Windows 8: bug 895464). Not activated for mobile versions of Firefox (Android, Firefox OS). I don't use the admin tools, so I don't know if they can be accessed from mobile browser (or if it really makes sense). If you currently have only a simple text input, it's probably worth to use input type color instead: on platform where it works, you will benefit from the color picker, and on other platforms, you will still have a text field (so no regression).