Web Safe Colors

Web safe colors are usually no longer needed because todays modern computers can read and correctly display millions of colors. Any computer with 24 bit color and higher has millions of colors.

Computers with 16 bit color have 65,536 colors and those with 8 bit color only have 256 colors. So if your traffic stats show you have considerable traffic with 8 bit computers then you may want to stick with web safe colors.

Most cellphones and PDAs also need Web Safe Colors, so if you have webpages designed for those devices, you may still need to use web safe colors.

Hexadecimal Web Safe Color Chart

Used with permission by
© 2000 VisiBone

Following is a graph of colors used by visitors to Lori's Web Design which shows 91.2% of my visitors have 32 bit color, 2.21% are using 24 bit color which adds up to about 93% of my visitors have millions of colors and 6% have 16 bit color (or 65,636 colors). So if I switch to non-web safe colors about 6% my visitors may see some dithering in some of my graphics. Being as 16 bit colors are quickly being phased out it should be safe to switch to non-web safe colors.

This image is provided via SiteMeter.com

Here is a site that explains Bit Depth in more detail and you can also Test Your Color Depth or check out some Pantone Color Guides Here is a great article on Color Theory