diff --git a/app/client/ui2018/ColorSelect.ts b/app/client/ui2018/ColorSelect.ts
index a2e94d49..894e0c70 100644
--- a/app/client/ui2018/ColorSelect.ts
+++ b/app/client/ui2018/ColorSelect.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import { darker, lighter } from "app/client/ui2018/ColorPalette";
 import { colors, testId, vars } from 'app/client/ui2018/cssVars';
+import { textInput } from "app/client/ui2018/editableLabel";
 import { icon } from "app/client/ui2018/icons";
+import { isValidHex } from "app/common/gutil";
 import { Computed, Disposable, dom, DomArg, Observable, onKeyDown, styled } from "grainjs";
 import { defaultMenuOptions, IOpenController, setPopupToCreateDom } from "popweasel";
 
@@ -84,7 +86,11 @@ function buildColorPicker(ctl: IOpenController, textColor: Observable<string>, f
     onKeyDown({
       Escape: () => { revert(); },
       Enter: () => { ctl.close(); },
-    })
+    }),
+
+    // Set focus when `focusout` is bubbling from a children element. This is to allow to receive
+    // keyboard event again after user interacted with the hex box text input.
+    dom.on('focusout', (ev, elem) => (ev.target !== elem) && elem.focus()),
   );
 }
 
@@ -150,12 +156,13 @@ class PickerComponent extends Disposable {
               testId(`${title}-input`),
             ),
           ),
-          // TODO: make it possible to type in hex value.
           cssHexBox(
-            dom.attr('value', this._color),
-            {readonly: true},
-            dom.on('click', (ev, e) => e.select()),
+            this._color,
+            async (val) => { if (isValidHex(val)) {this._model.setValue(val); }},
             testId(`${title}-hex`),
+            // select the hex value on click. Doing it using settimeout allows to avoid some
+            // sporadically losing the selection just after the click.
+            dom.on('click', (ev, elem) => setTimeout(() => elem.select(), 0)),
           )
         ),
         title,
@@ -275,7 +282,7 @@ const cssContent = styled('div', `
   align-items: center;
 `);
 
-const cssHexBox = styled('input', `
+const cssHexBox = styled(textInput, `
   border: 1px solid #D9D9D9;
   border-left: none;
   font-size: ${vars.smallFontSize};
@@ -285,6 +292,8 @@ const cssHexBox = styled('input', `
   width: 56px;
   outline: none;
   padding: 0 3px;
+  height: unset;
+  border-radius: unset;
 `);
 
 const cssLightBorder = styled('div', `
diff --git a/app/client/ui2018/editableLabel.ts b/app/client/ui2018/editableLabel.ts
index 44b05ca0..e5762217 100644
--- a/app/client/ui2018/editableLabel.ts
+++ b/app/client/ui2018/editableLabel.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
  * TODO: Consider merging this into grainjs's input widget.
  */
 import { colors } from 'app/client/ui2018/cssVars';
-import { dom, DomElementArg, styled } from 'grainjs';
+import { dom, DomArg, styled } from 'grainjs';
 import { Observable } from 'grainjs';
 import noop = require('lodash/noop');
 
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ type SaveFunc = (value: string) => Promise<void>;
  * cancels editing. Label grows in size with typed input. Validation logic (if any) should happen in
  * the save function, to reject a value simply throw an error, this will revert to the saved one .
  */
-export function editableLabel(label: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, ...args: DomElementArg[]) {
+export function editableLabel(label: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, ...args: Array<DomArg<HTMLInputElement>>) {
   let input: HTMLInputElement;
   let sizer: HTMLSpanElement;
 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ export function editableLabel(label: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, ...args
  * of focus. Escape cancels editing. Validation logic (if any) should happen in the save function,
  * to reject a value simply throw an error, this will revert to the the saved one.
  */
-export function textInput(label: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, ...args: DomElementArg[]) {
+export function textInput(label: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, ...args: Array<DomArg<HTMLInputElement>>) {
   return rawTextInput(label, save, noop, dom.cls(cssTextInput.className), ...args);
 }
 
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ export function textInput(label: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, ...args: Do
  * A helper that implements all the saving logic for both editableLabel and textInput.
  */
 export function rawTextInput(value: Observable<string>, save: SaveFunc, onChange: () => void,
-                             ...args: DomElementArg[]) {
+                             ...args: Array<DomArg<HTMLInputElement>>) {
   let status: Status = Status.NORMAL;
   let inputEl: HTMLInputElement;
 
diff --git a/app/common/gutil.ts b/app/common/gutil.ts
index 3b7d2156..cf8b670c 100644
--- a/app/common/gutil.ts
+++ b/app/common/gutil.ts
@@ -777,6 +777,15 @@ export function isColorDark(hexColor: string, isDarkBelow: number = 220): boolea
   return luma < isDarkBelow;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Returns true if val is a valid hex color value. For instance: #aabbaa is valid, #aabba is not. Do
+ * not accept neither short notation nor hex with transparency, ie: #aab, #aabb and #aabbaabb are
+ * invalid.
+ */
+export function isValidHex(val: string): boolean {
+  return /^#([0-9A-F]{6})$/i.test(val);
+}
+
 
 /**
  * Returns a promise that resolves to true if promise takes longer than timeoutMsec to resolve. If not