Browser safe colors - do we care?
Saturday September 6, 2008
I was asked today if the browser safe colors are really required any more. In my opinion, the correct answer is "It depends". As it really depends upon whether your readers are using older monitors and computers or not. If they are, then yes, it is required. If not, then no. Based on my poll in May, most people don't think they are required any more at all. What do you think? Are browser safe colors an anachronism? Or should we at the very least pay attention to what our users can view and try to accommodate that?
Comments
In my opinion, there is really no need to worry about choosing browser-safe colors. The use of 8-bit color palettes is from a time when most home computers could not handle anything greater. The only exception that I can think of is with hand-held devices or PDAs, but the majority of those are now capable of at least 16, if not 24-bit color. Also, a good thing to remember is that if the color(s) being used does/do not fit within the browser-safe, 216 color palette, the image will still be displayed — less the color(s) you preferred.
Google Analytics includes screen colors and they only list 16, 24, and 32 bit color. Here’s the breakdown of my visitors:
32 bit: 74.70%
24-bit: 22.56%
16-bit: 2.74%
16-bit may pose some difficulty for unusual colors, but there are so few that I do not think it matters. That’s one opinion
As you said it depends on the audience but in most cases I think it would be safe to say no
yes there is no need of choosing browser colors , i work with this website to create my webpage, n i don’t care about choosing web colors
I feel that the browser safe palette is not needed. Since with most monitors supports millions of colors. Then why to go for browser safe colors?
Not sure what you all are talking about, but… browser-safe means 216 colors which comes from 6 shades for red 6 shades for green and 6 shades for blue. So 6×6x6=216 colors. That is waaaaay waaaaaay waaaaay archaic and shouldn’t even be considered in this day and age. Sorry, to burst your bubble but my web pages long ago displayed the color table for browser-safe colors. OBTW, the color systems then were VGA with an 18 bit DAC. That allowed for 6 bits for red, 6 bits for green and 6 bits for blue. 6 bits each color is 64 shades for each and when multiplied out gives 64×64x64=262144 colors. When they stopped making digital signal monitors (EGA) and went to an analog signal monitors (VGA) the need for browser-safe colors went away. (that happened sometime in the last millenium) OBTW(again), if red=green=blue this will give 64 SHADES OF GRAY. When was the last time you heard that phrase??? Or cared??? Have a nice day.