web colors

needed?

[redeemer]

hi all ,is it needed to restrict myself to web colors when building a page or is every RGB ok?

[tedster]

I haven't bothered with that restriction for quite a few years, but apparently there is now some concern if your site is viewed on color mobile phones.

Check out this recent thread:

Reasons to use web safe color [webmasterworld.com]

...and this much older thread:

Only 22 TRULY web safe colors [webmasterworld.com]

[redeemer]

well then I don't care about mobile phones they will get more colors probebly..I'll just do 24bit.

thanks!

[tedster]

Be sure to check your page in 16-bit color as well. Even when the graphics card has the capability of 24-bit color, it often arrives pre-set to 16-bit. And there can be some surprising color shifts between the two that may undo the effect you are trying to create.

[encyclo]

I wouldn't bother too much with the so-called "web-safe" colors, however, it is worth considering the effect of a low resolution monitor on your design.

I went out to a client recently to show a design, and they fired up their old Mac with Netscape 4 (that I knew about, so it wasn't a problem), only to find that my subtle color fade between the logo and the menu was an ugly bunch of stripes because of the antiquity of the screen. In that case, I explained the problem and it was OK in the end, but you need to check to make sure that your color choice doesn't make your page unusable rather than just ugly.

The other thing to look out for are for the common color-blindness combinations out there - red/green designs are a definite no-no.