Color on the Web: 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.

Here are the hex values for some common basic web-safe colors:

White = #ffffff	Magenta = #ff00ff
Black = #000000	Light Green = #ccffcc
Red = #ff0000	Hunter Green = #336633
Green = #00ff00	Orange = #ffcc66
Blue = #0000ff	Pink = #ffcccc
Yellow = #ffff00	Light Blue = #00fffff
Cyan = #99cccc	Red Brown = #996600
Purple = #cc0099	Yellow Green = #fffff99

However, today most monitors can display the full range of the color spectrum.

Many designers no longer limit themselves to the so-called web-safe palette.

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.

For example, light text on a dark background is very startling and vivid, but difficult to read in long passages and virtually impossible to print.