diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e6295711..98802156 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -261,10 +261,17 @@ to the path of the file. For example your configuration might have:
   "theme": "~/mythemes/my-great-theme.py"
 ```
 
-You can then modify the color codes to your liking. Theme colors are specified
-using [Xterm-256 color codes](https://jonasjacek.github.io/colors/).
+You can then modify the color codes to your liking. Theme colors can be specified
+using [Xterm-256 color codes](https://jonasjacek.github.io/colors/), or using RGB tuple values
+if your terminal supports TrueColor. To check if this is the case, you can run:
 
-A script for testing color combinations is provided at `colortest.py`. Note
+```
+  $ echo $COLORTERM
+```
+
+If `truecolor` is printed, you're good to go with RGB values.
+
+Scripts for testing color combinations are provided at `colortest.py` and `colortest_truecolor.py`. Note
 that the colors you see may vary depending on your terminal. When designing a
 theme, please test your theme on multiple terminals, especially with default
 settings.
diff --git a/colortest_truecolor.py b/colortest_truecolor.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..29e4400a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/colortest_truecolor.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2
+import sys
+
+ESCAPE = chr(27)
+
+def fg(color):
+    return ESCAPE + '[38;2;%d;%d;%dm' % color
+
+def bg(color):
+    return ESCAPE + '[48;2;%d;%d;%dm' % color
+
+def reset():
+    return ESCAPE + '[48;0m'
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    if len(sys.argv) < 8:
+        print 'Usage: colortest_truecolor.py fg_red fg_green fg_blue bg_red bg_green bg_blue test_string'
+        sys.exit(1)
+    
+    fg_red, fg_green, fg_blue, bg_red, bg_green, bg_blue = map(int, sys.argv[1:-1])
+    test_string = sys.argv[-1]
+
+    print bg((bg_red, bg_green, bg_blue)), fg((fg_red, fg_green, fg_blue)), test_string, reset()
diff --git a/powerline_shell/__init__.py b/powerline_shell/__init__.py
index ae62704c..4e979e2a 100644
--- a/powerline_shell/__init__.py
+++ b/powerline_shell/__init__.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import sys
 import importlib
 import json
+from . import colortrans
 from .utils import warn, py3, import_file
 import re
 
@@ -86,6 +87,8 @@ class Powerline(object):
     def __init__(self, args, config, theme):
         self.args = args
         self.config = config
+        env_colorterm = os.getenv("COLORTERM")
+        self.truecolor_supported = env_colorterm is not None and "truecolor" in env_colorterm
         self.theme = theme
         self.cwd = get_valid_cwd()
         mode = config.get("mode", "patched")
@@ -105,6 +108,12 @@ def color(self, prefix, code):
             return ''
         elif code == self.theme.RESET:
             return self.reset
+        elif isinstance(code, tuple):
+            # Do we support TrueColor? If not, supply the closest possible xterm-256 color.
+            if self.truecolor_supported:
+                return self.color_template % ('[%s;2;%s;%s;%sm' % (prefix, *code))
+            else:
+                return self.color_template % ('[%s;5;%sm' % (prefix, colortrans.rgb2short(*code)))
         else:
             return self.color_template % ('[%s;5;%sm' % (prefix, code))