216 Browser Colors

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When specifying colors for Web page backgrounds, fonts, and other elements for 256-color displays (the most common display capability), you will probably want to choose from the 216 colors that look the same on both PC and Mac operating systems. Both the Netscape and Microsoft browsers have to work without the colors that each operating system reserves for itself. Since there are a total of 40 reserved colors on both systems, that leaves 216 colors for you to use. If you do use one of the 40 colors, each system tries to approximate it with some combination of the 216 acceptable colors (this is called dithering). Unfortunately, each operating system does dithering a bit differently. The result on a browser on one or both of the operating systems is likely to not be what you intended.

By using only the colors in the "browser-safe palette" table below, you'll be sure that your colors will look the same on both operating systems. The table shows the hexadecimal or red-green-blue (RGB) intensity value that you need to specify in the < BODY > tag for backgrounds and in the < FONT > and other tags containing color attributes. The first two hexadecimal (hex) digits are the red (R) value in the color; the second two are the green (G) value; and the third two are the blue (B) value. The six hexadecimal values create over 16 million possible colors and with a display adapter capable of providing those colors, all of them can be used. Remember that the 216-color limit is because you're assuming many of your viewers will have only a 256-color capable display.

As it happens, each RGB hex pair in the browser-safe palette contains one of values: 00, 33, 66, 99, CC, or FF. Each block illustrates the effects of increasing the levels of each color.Each block of 36 colors, from top to bottom, contains a twenty percent increase in red. From left to right in each box, the amount of green is increased by twenty percent. From top to bottom in each box, each block shows an increase of blue by twenty percent. The hex value you would code is superimposed on the color it produces.

00000000330000660000990000CC0000FF00
00003300333300663300993300CC3300FF33
00006600336600666600996600CC6600FF66
00009900339900669900999900CC9900FF99
0000CC0033CC0066CC0099CC00CCCC00FFCC
0000FF0033FF0066FF0099FF00CCFF00FFFF

33000033330033660033990033CC0033FF00
33003333333333663333993333CC3333FF33
33006633336633666633996633CC6633FF66
33009933339933669933999933CC9933FF99
3300CC3333CC3366CC3399CC33CCCC33FFCC
3300FF3333FF3366FF3399FF33CCFF33FFFF

66000066330066660066990066CC0066FF00
66003366333366663366993366CC3366FF33
66006666336666666666996666CC6666FF66
66009966339966669966999966CC9966FF99
6600CC6633CC6666CC6699CC66CCCC66FFCC
6600FF6633FF6666FF6699FF66CCFF66FFFF

99000099330099660099990099CC0099FF00
99003399333399663399993399CC3399FF33
99006699336699666699996699CC6699FF66
99009999339999669999999999CC9999FF99
9900CC9933CC9966CC9999CC99CCCC99FFCC
9900FF9933FF9966FF9999FF99CCFF99FFFF

CC0000CC3300CC6600CC9900CCCC00CCFF00
CC0033CC3333CC6633CC9933CCCC33CCFF33
CC0066CC3366CC6666CC9966CCCC66CCFF66
CC0099CC3399CC6699CC9999CCCC99CCFF99
CC00CCCC33CCCC66CCCC99CCCCCCCCCCFFCC
CC00FFCC33FFCC66FFCC99FFCCCCFFCCFFFF

FF0000FF3300FF6600FF9900FFCC00FFFF00
FF0033FF3333FF6633FF9933FFCC33FFFF33
FF0066FF3366FF6666FF9966FFCC66FFFF66
FF0099FF3399FF6699FF9999FFCC99FFFF99
FF00CCFF33CCFF66CCFF99CCFFCCCCFFFFCC
FF00FFFF33FFFF66FFFF99FFFFCCFF FFFFFF

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