COLOR ON THE WEB
PUT ON YOUR ROSE COLORED GLASSES

THE 216 COLOR WEB SAFE PALETTE
There has been much talk about the web-safe color palette. Here we will try to explain this palette, and dispel some popular myths about it. Newer display devices have better color capabilities than their older counterparts. One major advancement is the increased number of colors they can display. Many older monitors can only display 256 colors. Newer ones go to 65,536 colors (sometimes just called thousands) and sometimes 16.7 million colors. The difference between 256 colors and 65,536 is major and significant. If your monitor can view 65,536 colors, then you are in the big leagues and you can view any image correctly whether it is using the 216 web-safe colors or not.

For those web surfers out there who have a 256-color monitor; the challenge of getting consistent colors can be a difficult one. When one of these monitors comes to a color outside of its 256-color range, it will dither the screen with tiny dots, which optically blend to make that color. Dithering can be distracting and is usually not very effective in reproducing the difficult color. To complicate things further, different platforms and different browsers will display different 256 color palettes. The colors that overlap in all platforms on all browsers are the 216 web-safe colors. They are guaranteed not to dither on any screen showing 256 colors or better.

MONITORS AND CALIBRATION
Most computer monitors come equipped with certain controls to adjust the display. Brightness and contrast are common controls. Many monitors come with color calibration software as well. It is up to each individual user to adjust his or her monitor to correct color. Many people don’t do this. Those who do, are often unsure about the choice of calibration standards. They end up adjusting it to their personal liking, which is subjective.

EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE
The Designworks logo background at the top of this web page is dark blue. More specifically, it is a web-safe blue whose RGB annotation is 51, 51, 102. (You aren’t expected to know what that means, just to know that it is a specific, digitally-specified color). This web-safe color will display without dithering on almost every color monitor on the market. However, as we learned in the section on calibration, not everyone will see the exact same color of blue. What is important is that it is correct, relative to the viewers’ environment. To a user who has their monitor brightness cranked up all the way, this dark blue will look lighter than on a "normal" monitor. However, that person is accustomed to seeing everything lighter. Pure black will also appear lighter on their screen. And since that person is accustomed to seeing everything lighter, he or she will indeed perceive our dark blue logo background as dark.