Web-Safe Color Palette – Is It Still Relevant?

[HTMLBasicTutor]

I was recently asked in the classroom, whether it is still necessary to think about and use “web-safe” colors in graphics which will be used online. The question came about because we were looking at the Swatches palette in Photoshop and one of the options available under the context sensitive menu is Web Safe Colors.

If you’ve been working in web design for many years, you’re probably very familiar with this concept, but for anyone who’s new to designing online, here’s a brief explanation of what web-safe colors are and why they were necessary.

Computers monitors were not always the fine upstanding displays we know today. For a long time many monitors could only display 256 colors. When a color was used in an image that was not available on the monitor, a different replacement one had to be used. This was either the closest color or a dithered color which was slow to render but could look better. In a bid to make a standard palette of colors which were safe to use on monitors capable of showing 256 colors, a set of 216 colors were chosen and these were known as the web-safe colors.

Web-Safe Color Palette – Is It Still Relevant?

My thoughts are in the comments of the article.

Your thoughts?