Is The Web-Safe Color Palette Still Palatable?

Have you ever paused for just a moment and wondered why the colors on the Web are usually highly saturated and dark, instead of displaying more eye-pleasing toned and muted colors like those found in artwork?

Well, if you’re fairly new to the wonderful world of Web design, then the answer has everything to do with the Web-safe color palette developed for a period in time (circa 1996) when Web surfers were using 8-bit (256 colors) video cards. Sounds like an awful long time back, since hardly anyone today is on an 8-bit computer system. So, why are Web designers still obligated to stick to this Web-safe color palette when most of us are already using systems that can display at least a whopping 16.7 million colors (24-bit)?

Fortunately for all of us, the Internet is a beacon of freedom and democracy and the Web-safe color palette abides by this concept by ensuring universal accessibility and avoiding discriminatory discrepancy. Consisting of 216 colors and defined by RGB values, the Web-safe color palette displays its colors perfectly on all PC or Mac users’ systems. It’s the most widely supported set of colors by Web browsers and mobile devices. If a designer builds a website without using the Web-safe color palette, two main problems would occur for someone with a lower-end graphic card:

Sure, Web-safe colors have forced aesthetics to be sacrificed for mass standard usability, but the very fact that someone using an 8-bit video card today can still experience the same browsing experience as someone with a 128-bit video card, makes the lack of extra color stimulation seem worthwhile.

It’s for this reason that businesses who hire Web designers still insist on adhering to the Web-safe color palette. The fact that all the major Web development tools like Adobe’s CS3 and Corel’s Paint Shop Pro still include this palette is testimony to the current importance for its usage.

As a designer, there isn’t anything wrong with confining yourself to a mere 216 colors, as the real art lies in combining them in ways that provide the best visual experience for the Web user. Of course, you’re bound to come across situations where you’ll need to cross that bridge and start dabbling with alternative palettes. What are those palettes, you ask?

Mainly, Adaptive (non-Web-safe colors) and Web Snap Adaptive (a combination of non-Web-safe and Web-safe). These are color palettes that’ll come in very handy when you’re working with images, animations, photographs and videos. For instance, if you’d been tasked to remap a color photograph, the Adaptive palette is the one to use. What the Adaptive palette does is sample colors from the surrounding image’s color spectrum which are far more commonly used. Web Snap Adaptive is a modified Adaptive palette which substitutes Web-safe colors for colors in images, photographs and movies that aren’t Web-safe.

You might also want to look at the Selective and Perceptual palette which are ideal for optimizing GIF formats because these palettes correspond very well to colors in an original image. The reason why it’s usually never recommended to use the Web-safe color palette for images is because a relationship between an original image and itself is non-existent.

So, it’s safe to say that although we’re already cruising through Web 2.0 at 64-bits and higher, Web-safe colors still have a very strong role to play in today’s Web design environment. Designers who balk at it are only doing so because either they know with absolute certainty who their viewers already are, or they’ve simply failed to spare a thought for Web surfers with archaic computer systems.

However, with alternative color palettes at our disposal, there’s no reason why designers can’t mix it up to satisfy everyone.

About the Author:

Amy Derr seeks to help business owners and organizations market themselves effectively online. She is a Professional Web Designer who owns and operates Insiteful Web Design (http://www.insitefulwebdesign.com), a full-service web design firm.

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