WEB MEDIA SCHOOL session -22 WEB COLOR 216 Colors Common to Computers and Web Browsers
Have you heard of the term Web Safe Colors or Browser Safe Colors? What does that mean? In short, when monitors are set on their 8-bit setting of 256 colors, there are 216 of these colors common to all computers and Web browsers. These color values are based upon mathematical values representing 20% increments of RGB (Red Green Blue) values and assigned a hex (hexadecimal) value for Web use.
Until recently, Web designers have had to search the Web to find a Web safe color palette, but now most software companies have begun to build in this palette, or include it in a "Goodies" folder to allow designers quick access.
Now you know what Web Safe Colors are, why should you use them?
That's a good question, have you ever heard the phrase to "Play it Safe"? That's what Web Safe colors are all about. If you want to guarantee that everyone that views your site will view the same color (baring various hardware monitor settings many people do not know are there), use a Web safe color.
Services like SuperStats by MyComputer.com, can let you know how many people are visiting using a 256 setting on their computer. If you look at the SuperStats Premium Demo - you'll see the report for Monitor Color Depth shows that as many as 9-10% of the demo account users viewed the demo site with monitors set at 256 colors or less.
If this site were your site, how would you ensure that this 9-10% users have the same positive and color-rich experience as the rest? Web Safe Colors, of course!
Using Color to Inspire Customer ConfidenceColor is one of the areas that almost every site seems to misunderstand. Most often, your color combinations involve too many colors, stressful colors, or colors that make the text almost impossible to read.
A friend and experienced designer, Ken Hablow of KH Design offers the following advice
"Think of a traffic light. Red says, "Stop." Yellow says "Caution." Green means "GO." In most places a combination of Red and Yellow means you had well not go because there are pedestrians crossing the road and a violation can incur a large fine. So, on a Web site with Red text and a Yellow background, the color is telling people "Stop, don't even think about going further." Since there is no green, and people are trained to obey the colors, they simply leave.
Red is the hot color and yellow is the warm color. They incite strong emotion. In advertising they are used to call attention to something, to force the eye to look at whatever is highlighted red or yellow. Together they cause stress. When an advertising agency wants to create a stressful emotion in the reader, red and yellow are used.
On the other hand, the blue is the cold color and green is the cool color. These have a calming effect. They are inviting. They subdue stress. Blue tends to be more neutral.
The colors used on a Web site, especially if the Web site hopes to inspire confidence in potential customers, need to be combinations that are pleasant to look at and work well together regardless of how the monitor and video card render them.
I would also recommend looking at the following example, a great site for any commerce site to consider, for their use of color. Downstuff.com (www.downstuff.com) sells down comforters, pillows and feather beds. Every page of their site uses the same three-color combination to create a serene shopping environment: White, Blue, Greenish-tan (consider what Ken said above about green and blue). Color use doesn't have to be complicated to be powerful. There are many strong reasons to buy from a site like Downstuff.com, but their use of color is what first makes you comfortable, reassured, calm and ready to buy.
This article was inspired by contributions from Ken Hablow of KH Graphics (http://www.khgraphics.com)
<HTML>
<HEAD>
</HEAD>
<BODY TEXT="#FFFFFF" BGCOLOR="#CC0044" >THIS WHERE YOU CHANGE YOUR PAGE BACKGROUND COLOR AND PAGE TEXT COLOR
TO VIEW COLOR SELECTION
It's a basic tenet of Web design: color loads fast; images (usually) load slowly. Take this into account if your Web site uses a background image - especially a dark image with light text. Include a complimentary background color to provide an easier visual transition to the slower-loading background image.
Web safe colors are comprised of 216 colors that work on all platforms, monitors, and browsers that can display 8-bits of color (256 colors) and up. Only 216 of the 256 colors will display exactly the same on all computers. The 216 colors all consist of combinations of 'CC','00','33','99', and 'FF' to form a hex (six) color code which looks something like 'FF0000.' It is made using 'FF','00', and another '00'.Dithering is mixing web safe colors to create the illusion of there being more colors there. When a visitor on an 8-bit resolution comes across a page with a background of 'F8651C', it will dither web safe colors to come up with the closest possible mixture of colors that look similar to F8651C.
If you are a general site that attracts all types of people, then you should use web safe colors.
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