ASP Best Practices

Using the 216-Color Palette

Color palette mismatches are ever-present concerns when you are creating images for a multiplatform Web. Even images in formats that require compact palettes, such as GIF (256 colors maximum), often display disparate colors when viewed on different platforms, such as Macintosh operating system, Windows 95, and UNIX.

To ensure that your images display the same colors, regardless of browser or platform, use the browser-safe, 216-color palette (also called the safety palette or the 6x6x6 palette). This palette allows nearly as many colors to be viewed as a GIF image can display, and displays them consistently across different systems.

For more information about the browser-safe palette, see http://webdesign.miningco.com/msubcolor.htm. Alternatively, enter “216 color palette” into the search field of any popular Web search engine.