Home Basics Tables Music Make a Page
Images Colors Tables 2 Frames Frame Examples
Feedback Colors 2 Lists Tips Common Problems
Links Mailing List About
Terrashare		 Tell A Freind About 
AllAdvantage
Articles Scripts Vote for my new Banner All HTML Tags
Make Connors Web Guide my home page
1

Color Concepts
Elements of Color
This page is to go into colors a little bit more then just the tags to use for colors.  On this page I plan to cover what colors to use and why.  If you know what colors to use you can make your page more appealing to the eye.  If your site is more appealing then people will want to stay and come back to your site.
How Colors Arrive Color Depth
Elements of Color Categories of Color
Properties of color Color Relationships
Special Color Effects
How Colors Arrive
Computers rely on three pieces of hardware to deliver the color information to you:
  • The CPU (Central Processing Unit)
  • A Video graphics card
  • The computer monitor

The quality of color you see on your computer will depend on the type of these three pieces of hardware.  
Also computer platforms and operating systems (OSs) have different capabilities when it comes to color.  For example, Macintosh is know for its higher-end color, Windows 3.1 is usually limited, Windows 95/98 have good color control and if you are using UNIX or UNIX type machine, you're at a disadvantage, with lower color capabilities.  All these factors come together when someone visits your web site.  
One of the most familiar is CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black).  CMYK is a method used for print output.  In web design, indexed color is extremely important.


Back Top
Color Depth
If you've ever shopped for video cards, you'll notice the measurements of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 24-bit color.  These values refer to the number of bits of computer memory required to represent the different levels of color depth.  
8-bit color depth will display 256 color.  16-bit color depth with display 65,536 colors and 24-bit will display 16,777,216 colors.  

Back Top
Elements of Color
Artiest and designers have been trained to understand and use elements of color as a method to communicate.  Web designers often do not come from design backgrounds, and don't have a full understanding of what colors can do, what they mean, and how to harness its power.

Back Top
Categories of Color
Primaries: All colors are the result of some combination of three colors - Red, Yellow, and Blue.  They are the first colors to technically exist.  Without these three colors no other color is possible.
Secondaries: The next step is to mix pairs of the primaries together.  If you mix pairs of the primaries together.  If you mix red and yellow you come up with orange.  Blue and yellow make green.  Orange, and green are secondary colors.
Intermediates: When two or more primaries or secondaries are mixed together the results are referred to as intermediate color.  These colors are gradations that lie between the primary and secondary color.

Back Top
Properties of color
Color properties are determined by the type of amount of color as well as how much light is used in that color.  Example:
Hue: This term is used to differentiate one color from another.
Value: Navy blue is darker then blue, forest green is darker then lime.  A colors value is defined by the amount of light or dark in that color.
Saturation:  Is the brightness of color.  Peacock blue is very bright, whereas navy is rather dull.
Warmth: Hues found in the yellow-to-red range are considered to be warm.
Coolness:  Cool colors are those ranging from green to blue.  Think of ice blue or the cool sense of a forest a deep green can inspire.

Back Top
Color Relationships
Colors are emotional, and they have an emotional relationships with other colors. 
In designing your site, relationships are very important.  If you are trying to create a peaceful environment, I'm not going to want to use bright red, I would want nice light and soft colors.  

Back Top
Special Color Effects
Color effects include the following:
Luster: This is the term used to describe a shining quality usually seen in fabrics such as satin or silk.
Iridescence: The inside of seashells, or pearls are iridescent.  The color is usually some shade of gray.
Luminosity: Similar to luster and iridescence, the difference here is the quantity of contrast.  Luminosity is created when there is very delicate contrast between the lighter areas and background areas.
Transparency: Think of a piece of tape or colored class.  Light passes through, creating a clear or transparent effect.

Back Top