Computer Graphics Samples

Color Palettes for the Web

Index Page

The purpose of these pages is not to explain the non-dithering color palette for web documents. There are plenty of sites with very thorough discussions of the matter. As it turns out, the colors of the palette are generally presented in a way that I find hard to use for design work--so here it goes, YANCOLPO (yet another Netscape color palette observation). I used Photoshop to find the Hue, Saturation, and Brightness values for each color, then went about sorting the information in several ways, yielding the pages listed below. While HSB is a less-than-perfect approach (notice for instance how allegedly-equal brightness values are perceptually quite different), it provides a useful way to think visually (instead of numerically) about color.

Each palette contains the same 216 colors, but they are arranged differently to highlight various relationships. Each cell lists first the hexadecimal RGB value for the color (you can copy and paste it directly into your HTML code); then the hue, saturation, and brightness values.

Please note that all the palette pages require a browser capable of displaying table cell colors (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer versions 3 and up).

By Brightness
Lots of horizontal scrolling--the tables are 91 columns wide (because this is such a happy happy palette...with a surplus of bright & saturated colors). All the colors with the same brightness value appear on the same row.
- Each row is sorted by saturation. Colors with the same Saturation are further sorted by brightness level. This is the one you may find the most useful, if you don't mind all the scrolling.
- Each row sorted by hue, then by saturation, then modified to re-align the hue values. This gives you the best feel for the three-way interaction between all parameters--short of actually going to a 3-D representation of the color space.
  - unmodified version of the same (hue then saturation)
By Hue
Lots of vertical scrolling. There are more hues represented in this palette than brightness or saturation levels, thus these tables ended up being only 15 columns wide, which you may be able to see all at once if your monitor is at least 800 pixels across and you use the default font settings. All the colors with the same hue value appear on the same row.
- Each row sorted by brightness, then by saturation level.
- Each row sorted by saturation, then by brightness level.
By Saturation
These tables are also very wide--90 columns (due again to the uneven distribution of saturation values).
- Each row sorted by brightness, then by hue
- Each row sorted by hue, then by brightness

References

Web Color Charts Plus Rated Links, by Weber Publications.: If you can't find the links you need in this list, try Weber's page.
No Dither Netscape Color Palette, by Victor Engel.: A good introductory explanation of the problem and its solution(s).
ColorMaker, by Sam Choukri.: Form-based color selection.
ColorServe Pro, by Brian Hall.: Lets you choose colors interactively using an interface similar to the standard Macintosh color picker. Requires a Java-capable browser.
Colour in Computer Graphics, by the Gravigs Project.: University of Manchester lecture notes, supplemented by color demonstration software (runs on UNIX workstations only). There is a freely downloadable version, or you can order hardcopy with high-quality printed examples.
Cross-Platform Netscape Background Dithering, by Abigail Lavine.: Collects results from about 60 people who tested various colors for dithering using Netscape 1.1 browsers
Interactive Voyage Through the 6x6x6 Color Cube , by William I. Johnston.: Animation shows the color cube sliced perpendicular to the line connecting the white and black corners of the color space.
Netscape color grid, by Jutta.: Shows how Netscape may dither to 125 colors instead of 216 (on UNIX machines).
Patto's 216 Windows colors, by Pat B. Willener.: Four star-shaped diagrams of the non-dithering palette, centered on blue, green, red, and purple.
Charles Poynton Color technology: Entry point for Poynton's Colour FAQ and Poynton's Gamma FAQ--frequently asked questions on matters affecting image display and printing.
The Web Developer's Virtual Library's Color page: A guide to all you need to know to add color tags to your HTML.
Two4U's Color Compose Engine, by Mark Koenen.: A graphical user interface for color selection.
HTML Color Sampler, by Keith Baird.: A palette created entirely in HTML adjusting colors of table cells.
WWW Colors and Black & White Monitors, by Jason Harrison.: An often overlooked issue--not everyone has a color display (and, I would add, not everyone sees colors).
Color string values, by the Netscape people.: For what it's worth... you can also use some fanciful names to designate colors. This page is actually part of this frameset (look in the 'Color Units' section).

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This document is at <http://www.sanedraw.com/SAMPLES/WEBCOLOR/INDEX.HTM>
Copyright 1997-2000 by Sandro Corsi.
Posted 1997-08-02. Last revised 2000-04-14.