Trust me there is NOTHING worse then a web page you can't read or one that you can read but you get a head ache from it. I'll show you samples of what I feel are bad uses of colors and what sometimes works.
| Don't do this! | Now I don't know about you but that hurts my eyes. | Even this is hard to read at times |
| This is a little better |
See how the lighter color looks slightly better on that horred blue? Bright colors as a background really aren't that smart of a choice to use. This of course is just my own opinon but I do know people share that opinon. Just please, if you insist to have a background this bright use a light color for the text and show it to someone before announcing it to the world.
| bright colors on black SOMETIMES work |
You have to be VERY careful. There are some colors that bounce off the black and just SCREAM pain. There are some that work out nicely. Just be careful.
| very light colors on a light background are sometimes hard |
When you use light colors please be careful. The lighter the better but get too light and you're in no no land as far as I'm concerned.
| ACK! Don't do this!!!! |
Please please please! Don't use colors that are similer in color. There are times when it works out nicely but there are times when its just too hard to read! I can't tell you how many times I went to a page with a dark color of a BG and then the text was a similer altho slightly lighter version of the same color.
| This is still hard to read at times |
But it is easier to read then the one above it. If you insist on having the same color for a BG and text its best to put the lighter color as a BG and the darker one as a text. But still keep away from a color that is the same only just ever so slightly different in color.
| Bad idea | still not a wise decision but better then the first | Choose your colors WISELY!!! |
I can't stress choosing wisely enough. Don't just choose a color because you think it looks preaty. Choose it because it fits the essence of your page and because the combo works.
| This is relitivly nice. |
It isn't bright. It isn't to light. Works out fairly nice.
When in doubt don't go fancy. Use the common black on white.
Those are just a few samples of things to look out for. I must stress that you have someone look at your color choices before sending it out to the world. I personally have a beta tester for all my work. Graphics and web page alike. If they find something wrong they let me know right away. They give me opinons as well. Even though I do most of the work on my pages I know that it isn't a one person show. Always have some one check it.
Now I suppose you want to know how to make those colors? Well people have done better work then I at listing them so here are a couple of the pages I use to get my codes.
HTML color chart
Pal's Playground
There is one more thing you need to know about but I'll go into that on the graphic section.
