diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 84a3fc5..f53a991 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ lualine theme at lua/lualine/themes/{your_colorscheme}.lua in you repo.
 <summary><b>theme example</b></summary>
 
 To create a custom theme you need to define a colorscheme for each of vim's modes. Each mode has a `fg` and `bg` field for every lualine section.
+To specify colors you can use #rrggbb/color_name(like: red)/cterm_color(0-255).
 You can add special effects with `gui`.
 
 Though the example shows a,b,c being set you can specify theme for x, y, z too.
diff --git a/lua/lualine/highlight.lua b/lua/lualine/highlight.lua
index 22282ec..15a7cdf 100644
--- a/lua/lualine/highlight.lua
+++ b/lua/lualine/highlight.lua
@@ -6,7 +6,23 @@ local utils = require 'lualine.utils.utils'
 local section_highlight_map = {x = 'c', y = 'b', z = 'a'}
 local active_theme = nil
 
+local function sanitize_color(color)
+  if type(color) == 'string' then
+    if color:sub(1,1) == '#' then return color end -- RGB value
+    local converter = require 'lualine.utils.cterm_colors'
+    return converter.color_name2rgb(color)
+  elseif type(color) == 'number' then
+    if color > 255 then
+      error("What's this it can't be higher then 255 and you've given "..color)
+    end
+    local converter = require 'lualine.utils.cterm_colors'
+    return converter.cterm2rgb(color)
+  end
+end
+
 function M.highlight(name, foreground, background, gui, reload)
+  foreground = sanitize_color(foreground)
+  background = sanitize_color(background)
   local command = {'highlight', name}
   if foreground and foreground ~= 'none' then
     table.insert(command, 'guifg=' .. foreground)
diff --git a/lua/lualine/utils/cterm_colors.lua b/lua/lualine/utils/cterm_colors.lua
index e82afb5..5648b17 100644
--- a/lua/lualine/utils/cterm_colors.lua
+++ b/lua/lualine/utils/cterm_colors.lua
@@ -300,4 +300,20 @@ function M.get_cterm_color(hex_color)
   return closest_cterm_color
 end
 
+function M.color_name2rgb(name)
+  local color_val = vim.api.nvim_get_color_by_name(name)
+  if color_val == -1 then
+    return '#'..name -- Assuming it's 'rrggbb' without # not rad instead of red
+  end
+  return string.format('#%06x', color_val)
+end
+
+function M.cterm2rgb(color)
+  local color_data = color_table[color + 1]
+  if color_data ~= nil then
+    color_data = color_data[2]
+    return string.format("#%02x%02x%02x", color_data[1], color_data[2], color_data[3])
+  end
+end
+
 return M