Are web-safe colors still relevant?

Question

Since the vast majority of monitors are 16-bit color or more, including mobile devices, does it make sense to even consider web-safe colors when choosing color schemes? Or is i

Answer 1

It's still important if your target very poor to developing nations, such as countries in here south asia. I personally have a full blown IPS monitor with Windows 10, so it's not a problem to me, but we are minorities, and majority of them have old hardware/computers/operating systems except mobiles phones, as it's cheap to buy a latest mobile phone, but computer hardware are expensive due to the taxes/ import cost etc.. compared to the salary of an average person.I personally witnessed many people still use old Windows XP, 98 PC with 256 colors on Pentium 4 processors. So if you target such audience, it's better to use web safe colors, but if you are doing a business it's not worth, as they are less likely to be your customers, but if you are doing an information site, a blog, an activist site that people can read and get informed without having to pay for something then always use fallback theme or something with web safe colors. since such people are mostly on windows xp/98, try to detect the OS, and if the user is from such operating systems, then use the fallback theme.

So remember that, most of people in this world are poor, and most of people still use old hardware and technologies. If you want to cover them all without working a lot hard on your current theme, then always use fallback themes. One for old mobiles, one for old desktop displays, one for modern displays and modern mobiles (responsive)

Answer 2

For those of us (like me) that didn't know exactly what web safe colors are, they were

developed at a time when many computer displays were only capable of displaying 256 colors. A set of colors was needed that could be shown without dithering on 256-color displays; the number 216 was chosen partly because computer operating systems customarily reserved sixteen to twenty colors for their own use; it was also selected because it allows exactly six shades each of red, green, and blue (6 × 6 × 6 = 216).

The list of colors is often presented as if it has special properties that render them immune to dithering. In fact, on 256-color displays applications can set a palette of any selection of colors that they choose, dithering the rest. These colors were chosen specifically because they matched the palettes selected by the then leading browser applications.

It's hard to imagine any of this applying to today's modern displays, since almost nobody runs their display in 256 colors anymore (unless perhaps they are playing an old version of Leisure Suit Larry).

Answer 3

I think the most important thing when choosing a colour palette is keeping in mind colour-blindness. There are a few different types that I know of, but the main thing is making sure that you have enough contrast between colours.

For example green text on a red background might be easier for some to read, but very difficult or maybe impossible for others (5-10% of males!), especially if the values of the colours are close.

Answer 4

Web safe colors are pretty much not a problem anymore unless you are dealing with consumers that will have legacy (think > 10 year old) video display equipment.

Answer 5

I don't think web safe colors are relevant any more. To me, a much bigger problem for smartphones are all the fixed-width 960-pixel wide web pages.

Answer 6

Yes, it's definitely a thing of the past. Place its importance right next to your marquee tags.