Color: Key Concepts

	The color that you see on a web page is affected by the quality and settings of your computer's monitor. Web page color is screen-based. The monitor screen displays combinations of the red, green, and blue values of the color spectrum. The value of a color is an amount of contrast, i.e., its lightness or darkness. This value can be expressed in a number from 0-255.
	Browsers read the hexadecimal (i.e., base 16) equivalents of color values. HTML expresses color in the format #rrggbb where rrggbb refers to the hex equivalents of the color’s red (rr), green(gg), and blue(bb) values. Ex.: #ffffff is the HTML code for the hex equivalent of the color white.
	Older computer monitors are incapable of accurately displaying the entire color spectrum. To be absolutely sure to avoid dithering (i.e., spotting and scattering) in the colors on your web page, use the 216-color, browser-safe palette; this is a cube with 6 red values, 6 green values, and 6 blue values. Browser-safe colors are formed with any combination of the color values with the hex equivalents of 00, 33, 66, 99, cc, ff.
	You can change the colors of every element of your web page; thus you can change: text color hyperlink color visited hyperlink color active hyperlink color background color
	When you change your colors, be sure there is sufficient contrast between your text color and your background color. Use pastels rather than bold colors until you become proficient in web design. Light text on a dark background is very startling and vivid, but difficult to read in long passages and virtually impossible to print.