Resources > Web-Safe Color Selector

Web-Safe Color Selector

Although contemporary color monitors can read millions of colors, conservative web page designers often default to what are known as "web-safe" or "browser-safe" colors. This palette of 216 colors is said to work reliably on older 8-bit (256 color) monitors, on newer monitors set to a lower resolution, and with most browsers and platforms (in reality, every monitor displays colors slightly differently).

As with typefaces, the appearance of colors in web pages cannot be absolutely controlled. But you can use any color available on your system. The "web-safe" palette is more handy as a general reference, when you are making broad color decisions. These colors are also easily selectable in web design and graphic software.

Note that these colors -- and any other colors viewed on-screen -- will look considerably different when printed. Screen colors use RGB values while printed materials use specialty inks or CYMK colors. If maintaining a particularly color scheme across all media is important to you, you can develop a color mapping scheme that defines a printed equivalent for each screen color you use.

In HTML, all colors are specified with a hexadecimal code, preceded by a "#". The "web-safe" colors always use combinations of the following pairs: 00, 33, 66, 99, CC, FF. Colors containing any other characters, or which use these characters but not in pairs, fall out of this palette. Thus, #FF00FF is part of the "web-safe' palette but #FF8C00 and #F5F5DC aren't.

Selected colors may also be known by color names, such as blue (#0000FF) and fuchsia (#FF00FF). To ensure maximum cross-platform and cross-browser consistency, however, use the hexadecimal codes whenever possible.

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The "Web-Safe" Color Palette

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