Background Colors

Background Colors for web pages.

The default background for a web page is a neutral gray. Two easy methods for sprucing up your web page are: (1) use of an interesting background color and (2) use of an interesting background picture.

Near the beginning of every web page you will have a BODY tag. To set the background color, add the attribute “BGCOLOR="#rrggbb"” to the BODY tag, giving the color in red-green-blue (RGB) hexidecimal values. For simplicity, the chart below includes some commonly used colors and their hexadecimal values. The completed BODY tag should look like the following (white used in the sample):

If you choose a dark color, you may need to also adjust the colors of the body text and links as well (you adjust one or more of these). Each of these attributes use the same hexadecminal RGB format as the BGCOLOR attribute. The TEXT attribute sets the main text color (the default is black). The LINK attribute sets the color for links that have not been visited yet (the default is blue). The VLINK attribute sets the color for visited links (the default is violet). The ALINK attribute sets the color of the link when the user clicks on it (the default is red). The following BODY tag shows these attributes set to their default values:

You will want to choose combinations of colors that match the theme of your page. You will also want to choose combinations of colors that are high in contrast, for easier readability. Dark letters on a light background is easier to read. You will want to avoid shifting colors in a manner that is confusing (such as using blue for text and black for links — the opposite of the defaults).

One of the limitations of HTML and the World Wide Web is that you can not depend on the capabilities of the computer or browser in use (not everyone has Netscape Communicator on a Macintosh). Text only browsers normally ignore all color information. You should also check the look in gray scale (for hand-held computers such as the Newton or E-Mate) and 256 colors (for older Macintoshes and most consumer Windows machines) and 16 colors (for older MS-DOS machines). You can temporarily change the setting of your computer monitor(s) by choosing Control Panels from the Apple menu. The control panel “Monitors” or “Monitors &#amp; Sound”, depending on the age of your operating system, will have a simple click menu for choosing grayscale or color and 16, 256, thousands, or millions of colors. On machines with 256 colors or less, browsers that support these color attributes will align your color to the closest color in their default color palette (so, make sure your page is still readable with this color shifting). And, just to mess with your best laid plans, some browsers will let the viewer choose any background, text, and link colors of his or her choice, over-riding your carefully coordinated choices.

Hexadecimal Color Chart

recommended pastels:
			FFDDDD	FFFFDD	DDFFDD	DDFFFF	DDDDFF	FFDDFF

FF0000	FFFF00	00FF00	00FFFF	0000FF	FF00FF	FFFFFF	808080	000000

C91F16	CA2316	CC2A13	D03815	CC3615	D23D16	D34810	D4480D	D9580E

D95B0F	DA5F0E	DB640D	DD680B	DC6E0D	E37509	E7860B	368601	ED9E0A

F1A60A	F1AD06	EEAD00	F7BD00	F5B600	F9C60F	FCCF03	FBD50A	FCE503

F6E60A	EDE400	E6E209	DFDC09	D8DB09	CED500	C5D300	BED20F	B5CC0A

B0C50F	A5C50F	9FC40D	98C100	8FBB0C	92C00E	7FB513	80B812	77B312

71B30E	6FB20F	69AC12	69B011	55A41C	5AAA1D	4EA41D	47A41E	3A9B20

349B26	339C1E	2D9C1F	2B9B22	209426	1B9324	189425	039331	008C33

098D3A	088343	0C8C4B	00844A	048D5C	0E8C62	088D6C	008C7C	089394

05949D	0B8D94	0994A6	009DBE	0894B6	0D9BC4	009DCF	159BD4	1F9AD7

148DC6	1D93D1	147CB5	0D84C4	0C7BBB	0D73B3	106CAC	0363A3	135A9E

085293	0A5397	094A91	0D4284	06438A	0D3981	113279	123179	152C74

182A71	182369	181A5F	181C67	1D1A62	1D1259	1E1059	230E59	300D5A

310C5A	3A0B59	4B0A5B	51095A	5B0B5A	730861	6B015A	7C0362	820060

8B0A62	940B63	A40563	AE0964	C20F68	BD0062	C40063	C50059	C6004B

C70542	C60A39	C50A2A	C50B21	C5121B	F3D7E3	F6D5C3	D8E9D6	F8F7D9

434343	777777	A7A7A7	D4D4D4	EEEEEE	D1C9DF	B0C3CF	D4EBF9	CECDB4


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