 |
Creating
Images for the Web |
Introduction
Format
File_size
| Colors on the Web | First, the
good news: color doesn't cost you anything extra
on the Web. Two colors, three colors, and colors
outside of the print gamut are all the same
price--and you don't have to worry about press
checks. Now the bad news: gradients, blurs, and
subtleties of color are difficult to achieve
online (as is just about anything else refined). |
| the GIF color palette | All GIFs have a color
palette consisting of up to 256 colors (8-bit
color). It's a good idea to make this palette
conform to Netscape's 216 browser-safe colors
(see the tip below). These colors are a
simplified subset of the Mac's and PC's 256-color
system palettes. By limiting your GIFs to this
palette, you won't actually ensure that your
visitors will see the same colors that you see
(because monitors can vary substantially in the
colors they show), but at least your graphics
won't dither on either platform. |
| Netscape's 216 colors | If you can possibly reduce
your GIFs to Netscape's 216 browser-safe colors,
do it. There are times, however, when that's not
an option. Sometimes the Netscape palette just
annihilates your image. When this happens, use an
adaptive palette (which means that rather than
changing the colors in the image to those of an
existing palette, you can choose a palette that
is derived from the actual colors in the
image)--outside of the Netscape 216. It's better
that your graphics look bad on 256-color monitors
and good on displays with more colors, rather tha
n look bad on all systems. |
| Browser safe colors | Visit Lynda Weimans page to pick up a
palette with all the colors compatible with bothe
Newscape and Micorsoft browsers. |
Web Images |
Contact Nancy Perrin, or John Rueter. PSU's FIPSE Project coordinated by Nancy Perrin and John Rueter, © 1997. Page constructed by Chris Miller. Last updated on June 22, 1998. For more see the About Page.