PIX-Webdesign

What is Web Color Synchronization?

Web color synchronization is the attempt to get your Web colors to look exactly the same on all the monitors that view it. Web color synchronization attempts to synchronize those colors and keep them in synch.

Web Color Synchronization is More than “Browser Safe” Colors

The idea behind browser safe colors was to generate a color palette that used only colors found on both Windows and Macintosh machines. On 8-bit machines, there were 216 colors that fit that criteria. And with most monitors supporting millions of colors, many people feel that the browser safe palette is not needed.

Web color synchronization requires more than a palette of supported colors. My friend uses a Dell monitor similar to mine, and her computer has a high quality video card. She runs Windows XP like I do. But when she viewed a site I created with a dark green background (#030) it came up as a bright forest green on her display. On my display, #030 is a very dark, nearly black, green. Our monitors were not in synch. Read the rest of this entry »

When is the last time you saw a Web site in black and white?

Color is vital to the repertoir of your average Web designer, and yet many designers don’t realize that the colors they choose may be having more of an effect than they realize. Colors are an element of design that people react to on a visceral level. Often, they don’t realize they are reacting to it. For example, in the U.S. many hospitals dress their nurses in light blues and pale pinks. This is because these are calming, soothing colors, and upset patients relax a little in their presence. Once you understand your audience make up you can create a color scheme that suits them.

When choosing the colors for your site, you need to first (as always) think of your audience. Is it a global audience? Is it primarily Western? Eastern? Are they older? Younger? Male? Female? All of these things, and more can affect the color choices for your site.

Cultural Differences

Colors obtain symbolism through cultural references in the culture you grew up in. Depending upon the culture, colors can have very different meanings and actually cause problems for your site. For example, in the East, white is the color of funerals while in the West white is the color of Weddings. If you were to design a Wedding site intended for an Asian audience and you used a lot of whites, you could be disturbing the people you’re trying to reach.

Age Differences

Young children tend to prefer brighter, more solid colors, while adults tend to prefer more subdued colors. If you’re writing to an audience of children and you’re using muted pastels and shades of grey, their parents might like it, but the kids will be long gone before the page finishes loading Read the rest of this entry »

What is a Web Color Palette?

Using the browser safe color palette is a choice you need to make when you’re creating a Web page or Web image. It is especially important that you know what the consequences are for not using it.

For example, you might use the color #dddddd for the background of a table. On your monitor it would probably display as a nice neutral light grey. But when you show it to a friend, it could look very different. Depending upon how his monitor interprets the color it could look grey or it could look green or some other color.

What displays as light grey on a 24-bit, 16.7 million color monitor might display as a really ugly greenish grey on a 8-bit, 256 color monitor.

This is because #dddddd is not a browser-safe color. “Browser Safe Colors” are the 216 colors that can be viewed on 8-bit PC and Macintosh monitors and look the same (or close to the same). (And if you include the colors that Unix systems display the common colors lower to around 212.) If you use browser safe colors, you can be sure that they will not dither on these machines and your pages will look the way that you intended them to look Read the rest of this entry »