diff --git a/lib/tagger.php b/lib/tagger.php
index eff5809bc..c5948c392 100644
--- a/lib/tagger.php
+++ b/lib/tagger.php
@@ -646,12 +646,20 @@ function is_style($tag, $match = self::STYLE_FG_BG) {
     }
 
     /** @return string */
-    function color_regex() {
+    private function color_regex() {
         if (!$this->color_re) {
-            $re = "{(?:\\A| )(?:\\d*~|~~|)(" . join("|", array_keys($this->style_info_lmap));
-            foreach ($this->filter("colors") as $t)
-                $re .= "|" . $t->tag_regex();
-            $this->color_re = $re . ")(?=\\z|[# ])}i";
+            $re = "{(?:\\A| )(?:(?:\\d*~|~~|)(" . join("|", array_keys($this->style_info_lmap));
+            $any = false;
+            foreach ($this->filter("colors") as $t) {
+                if (!$any) {
+                    $re .= ")|(";
+                    $any = true;
+                } else {
+                    $re .= "|";
+                }
+                $re .= $t->tag_regex();
+            }
+            $this->color_re = $re . "))(?=\\z|[# ])}i";
         }
         return $this->color_re;
     }
@@ -663,13 +671,13 @@ function styles($tags, $match = 0, $no_pattern_fill = false) {
         }
         if (!$tags
             || $tags === " "
-            || !preg_match_all($this->color_regex(), $tags, $m)) {
+            || !preg_match_all($this->color_regex(), $tags, $ms, PREG_SET_ORDER)) {
             return null;
         }
         $classes = [];
         $info = 0;
-        foreach ($m[1] as $tag) {
-            $ltag = strtolower($tag);
+        foreach ($ms as $m) {
+            $ltag = strtolower($m[1] ? : $m[2]);
             $t = $this->check($ltag);
             $ks = $t ? $t->colors : [$ltag];
             foreach ($ks as $k) {
diff --git a/src/settings/s_tags.php b/src/settings/s_tags.php
index 344b10a33..b804ff889 100644
--- a/src/settings/s_tags.php
+++ b/src/settings/s_tags.php
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ function parse(SettingValues $sv, Si $si) {
             $ts = array();
             foreach ($sv->conf->tags()->canonical_colors() as $k) {
                 if ($sv->has_reqv("tag_color_$k")) {
-                    foreach ($this->my_parse_list($sv->si("tag_color_$k"), Tagger::NOPRIVATE | Tagger::NOCHAIR | Tagger::NOVALUE | Tagger::ALLOWSTAR, false) as $t) {
+                    foreach ($this->my_parse_list($sv->si("tag_color_$k"), Tagger::NOPRIVATE | Tagger::NOVALUE | Tagger::ALLOWSTAR, false) as $t) {
                         $ts[] = $t . "=" . $k;
                     }
                 }