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July Special
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A Detailed Analysis of Website Colors Choices
One of the most important choices to make when designing a website is
your website color choices. It is important to have a web color scheme for
your site. Besides choosing the colors themselves, you must choose what
format to declare your colors with.
To decide what color format to use you will need to know where the
colors are going to be declared. If you are going to declare your color
names in a CSS or XML file you have different options then you would
have if you declare your colors in an HTML file.
First let's look at the color formats. Listed below are descriptions of
the different color formats in a loose order of relativity to website
color choices. Of all of the choices listed below, only RGB and HEX
(Hexadecimal) colors are really popular for web design, but the others
are noted for other reasons related to making your website color scheme
decisions.
Types of Color Formats
RGB Colors
Syntax: RGB(red value, green value, blue value)
Example usage: <body bgcolor=“RGB(0,55,255)”>
Range: From: RGB(0,0,0) To: RGB(255,255,255)
The RGB color format is based on light and therefore is really only
practical for using in designs that are sure to be displayed on a
lighted screen, so are mostly used only in web design, television and in
movies. RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue and this is the order that
the numbers which represent the colors are placed. RGB colors use a
straight and simple base ten numbering system (consisting only digits
from 0-9) and the three individual color values range from 0 to 255.
There are two major drawbacks to using RGB colors in web design.
First and most important to note, is that they are not cross browser
compatible to use in HTML documents. For example, RGB colors in HTML
will work in the latest version of Internet Explorer 7, but do not work
in any Firefox browsers to date. However, that does not mean that you
have to rule out RGB colors all together. The RGB color format is very
cross browser compatible when used in CSS and XML documents. Using them
in CSS style sheets, which is the standard these days, RGB colors will
work great in either Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers.
The second drawback of using RGB colors in web design is that they will
not show up on paper the same way that they do on your monitor. They
will often look dull or not as bright due to their dependency on light
to generate them. I think they are great for web design though and if
they ever become cross browser compatible for HTML documents, I would
use them all the time because they are easy to use and understand. Here
is a link to a great
RGB
color designer.
Hexadecimal Colors
Syntax: #RedGreenBlue
Example usage: <body bgcolor=“#99FF00”>
Range: From: #000000 To: #FFFFFF
Hex (Hexadecimal) colors are probably the safest web design color choice
you can make because they are cross-browser compatible no matter whether
you are using them in HTML, CSS or XML. There are 216 possible colors
that will work in most browsers. You may use other colors than the
specified 216 web safe colors, however most browsers will convert the
colors to one of the standard 216. You can find a
standardized Hex 216 color chart that lists all of the web safe Hex
codes. While hexadecimal colors are based on the RGB system, they use a
base 16 numbering system instead of a base 10. A base 16 number system
uses 0-9 and A-F in that order. So to count in base 16, you would do
this: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F. Shades of grey can be made by
repeating three identical numbers for the respective RGB values. This
works with hexadecimal (i.e. #343434 or #676767 both make shades of
grey) or standard RGB color formats (i.e. RGB(22,22,22) or
RGB(111,111,111) both will make shades of grey).
Color Names
Example usage: <body bgcolor=“yellow”>
You may also call colors in your HTML or CSS documents by their
respective names. There are dozens of color names that will work,
however, if you want your HTML or CSS to validate, the W3C has specified
16 color names that you can use: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray,
green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and
yellow.
CMYK colors: CMYK colors are often referred to as four color printing
because they are widely used in the printing industry. CMYK stands for
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and they K represents Black, the four colors used
in CMYK colors. CMYK colors have a limited range and are often combined
with pantone colors to make a wider range of available colors. while
great for printing on paper, it is not a choice for making colors on the
web. They are mainly used to compare colors to printed material and are
converted to Hex or RGB format for use in web design.
Pantone colors: Pantone colors, named after the Pantone corporation are
a standard in color design used most widely in the printing and painting
industry. If you have had printing work done for your company, you have
probably dealt with Pantones. The greatest benefit that Pantone colors
bring us is that they ensure that the same color tone is used from print
job to print job. Pantone colors are made from mixing a specified set of
inks to get solid colors. The most common uses for pantone colors are
logo design, letterhead, business cards and envelopes. Again not an
option for web design colors, but worth mentioning simply because of the
fact that Pantone standard colors are a good way to match colors. When
choosing colors for your website's design, you may use the Pantone
system to find out what Hex color code or RGB colors are closest to the
color of your printed logo. Pantone puts out color swatches that are
used widely for matching colors. For web design, that often means
holding the paper color swatches up to your computer screen to find the
color that is the closest to that of your printed work.
Which Color Format Should you Choose?
While RGB colors are the simplest to understand and use, they are not
always the best choice for all situations. Hexadecimal colors have
gained my approval for use in any web design situation. I use them the
most simply because I know they will work in any browser or document
type combination. If the RGB format was universally accepted, I would
most likely use it as my format of choice, however, since it is not, I
will continue to use Hex colors.
It is also best to choose from the 216
common colors that are listed on
many charts on the internet. Color names are also very practical
when you are in a hurry and do not care to look up the Hex code. I often
use color names as my web design color choice when I need a simple color
that is one of the 16 included in the W3C standard. If I just need a
standard red or blue, it is just easiest to write the name out.
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