Re: web safe fonts

by "Kehvan M. Zydhek" <kehvan(at)zydhek.net>

 Date:  Thu, 29 Mar 2001 18:30:35 -0800
 To:  <hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>,
"Nate Harel" <nate(at)email.com>
 References:  host
  todo: View Thread, Original
Nate,

Sorry about this, but <heh heh heh> you gotta GUESS! As can be seen by
recent posts on here, it's alleged that there are only 20 or so truely
"Web-safe" colors, and they're apparently crap. In your previous post, you
asked about cookies for an art site. If this is for the same thing, I would
say that to try to force the artwork into 256 colors would be a disservice.

I personally code for 24-bit (TrueColor, 16.7 million colors) format. I
would suggest you do this too. Most operating systems have a means to change
your display to lesser values, 16-bit (65K colors), 15-bit (32K colors), or
8-bit (256 colors). If it's that important, code you page template to look
good, then look at it with a reduced color pallette, and then make changes
until it looks good in the formats you want.

Of course, users of less than 24-bit color KNOW that some websites just
aren't gonna look good, no matter what, so they expect it. If you can find a
set of colors that look good in reduced pallettes, COOL! Use it. But you'll
have to do a lot of testing.

For the record, the Netscape 216 color set are combinations of RED, GREEN,
and BLUE that have hex values of 00, 33, 66, 99, CC, and FF. Example: 000099
is a medium blue that is supposed to be web-safe (but isn't always) -- it's
built from 00 RED, 00 GREEN, and 99 BLUE. This is about the only set of
colors that are agreed to be web-safe, but aren't always.

If you use Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop for graphics, or Homesite or
Dreamweaver for HTML, these programs have (or should have) the Netscape 216
pallette as an option. Use that. But you might not like the look. I still
say that you should build for 24-bit and then see how it degrades, and
adjust accordingly.

Hope this helps,
Kehvan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nate Harel" <nate(at)email.com>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 17:19
Subject: web safe fonts


| Hi all,
|
| Can someone suggest to me what the best or most reliable "web safe" fonts
| are to use?
|
| Thanks
|
| Nate
|
|

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