Looking Back: Web Safe Colours

published by Dan in Web Development | Web Technology | Website Design with No Comments

Remember the time when most computer screens were only able to render 256 colors accurately? At that time web designers were adviced to limit themselves to using “web safe colours” if they want their designs not to go to waste. Because of this what designers only used were 6 shades each of red, green and blue, which made a total of 216 colours belonging in the web safe colour palette. Although computer screens were capable of displaying 256 the shades of colour which operating systems usually used already were taken out of the web safe palette.

Thanks to improvements technology, which were mostly driven by the demand for better video game graphics and as well as digital photos, computer displays started supporting 16-bit colour and 24-bit colour, called TrueColor. Because of this defining “web safe colours’ is no longer needed. Web designers now have a freedom of choice as to whatever shade they may want to use for the websites being developed.

Although most users may not really notice the difference and merely think that some websites are better than others the ability to use so many hues allow web designers to give more attention to details, making the experience richer and more pleasing to users. As technology progresses forward web designers can also look forward to more choices, not just in color, but in almost all aspects affecting website design.

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