A Prism of Precision: Color Theory and Web Design

by Caitlin Sanford
Web Design School Review Columnist

From blue hues that evoke corporate class, to neutrals and pastels that enhance personal Web sites, color defines design. But getting the colors right in your Web pages can be challenging. Even if you have a perfect vision for your site, matching the exact colors using HTML codes and color charts requires practice and skill. Mastering color theory will help ensure that your Web design career future is bright.

Designing with Color

In a competition held by iNOVA for the best corporate Web sites, nearly all of the winning sites used blue shades. The winning Web sites all used a three-color combination, or triad. To find the perfect color triad, first pick your base color, and then choose two complementary colors. If you’re a career CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) user, you can use CSS code to find harmonious color triads.

Synchronization: The Browser Safe School of Thought

A big issue in Web design color theory is synchronization. Synchronization means ensuring that the colors you choose look the same no matter what browser or monitor viewers use. To address synchronization, career professionals came up with the theory of “browser safe” colors, using colors that exist on both Windows and Macintosh machines. Using browser safe colors is a good idea. Keep in mind that if you choose an obscure shade, viewers using other browsers may see a different color.

Web Design School and Color Theory

In Web design school, you will not only get a lot of practice choosing and synchronizing colors, you can also take actual courses in color theory. Mastering color theory means understanding color wheels and HTML and CSS color codes. You will study how to match colors and when to use certain shades. A course in color theory is a worthwhile investment in your career.

About the Author

Caitlin Sanford is a consultant and freelance writer. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Stanford University.

Source(s)

Digital Web Magazine
iNOVA Awards

Posted at 4:10 PM on September 4, 2007

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