Designing color schemes for your web site

Choosing color for your web site

Choose a palette of colors to base the design on -- 4 is sufficient
This may sound extreme, but you can use varying tones of the same shade to highlight

Always use web safe hues for the main design elements, especially if these are going to contain any textual navigation
This is because non-web safe colors will dither (go "bitty" - made up of two or more similar shades)

If in doubt, check your colors after reducing your screen color depth to 256 colors
In Windows - go Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Click Settings and change the colors to 256

Place your chosen colors next to each other in a graphics software program to see if they work together
Some web safe colors create "noise" (appear to move/blend together) when placed next to each other - try to avoid this

First Impressions

Think about the impression you want to give - Modern, welcoming, cosy, corporate, professional, fun etc. and choose colors which match these themes.

For example:

Modern colors are clean, bright, such as blue and yellow
Welcoming or cosy colors could be oranges, yellows, greens
Corporate styles are clean - blue, grey, white for example

A fun web site for kids could include the primary colors red, blue and yellow

Color psychology

Think about color psychology - how color makes people feel

	Positive	Negative
	Red symbolizes passion, love, danger, heat, power, strength, a little can be stimulating. Stimulates the appetite, by increasing metabolism.	Too much could be percieved as aggressive. Also symbolizes danger, fire, blood, war, violence. Remember to consider color-blind users - red/green color blindness is the most common
	Pink can symbolize femininity and youth.	Naivity, weakness.
	Orange is percieved as vibrant, warm, cosy and autumnal. Has been a very in vogue color for web sites.	Attention-seeking.
	Yellow can symbolize sunshine, happiness, growth, gold and "newness".	Can also symbolize dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, deceit, illness, hazard.
	Green signifies nature, the environment, life, growth, good luck, youth, spring, fertility, religion.	Also symbolizes jealousy, envy and misfortune. Considered bad when used for packaging.
	Blue symbolizes calm, peaceful, water, sky, harmony, therapeutic, trust, confidence, cleanliness and loyalty. Gives people energy. Safe color to use in design.	Sadness, cold, depression, suppresses the appetite.
	Purple symbolizes royalty, spirituality, passion and love.	Cruelty, arrogance, mourning.
	Brown is neutral, earthy, outdoors, warm.	Dirty, dull.
	Grey/gray can be modern, intelligent, solid, clean.	Old age, sadness, boring, dull.
	White is symbolic of cleanliness, innocence, space, purity, chastity, simplicity, peace, winter/snow, goodness, marriage/virginial.	Death (in Eastern cultures), cold, clinical, sterile.
	Black is associated with power, elegance, magic, mystery, night, sophistication, solid and powerful.	Death (in Western cultures), witches (black magic), fear, evil, anonymity, unhappiness, sadness, remorse, anger, mourning, death (Western cultures).

Color combinations

Think about which color combinations work

				Black, white, grey/gray and red
				Red and white
				Orange and purple
				Purple and yellow
				Green and purple
				Blue and yellow
				Blue, grey/gray and white
				Green and browns (be careful or color-blind issues)
				Teal and purple/lilac

Web Development Resources

Web Developer Books, Code & Insight

Web Design & Color Theory

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