On Mon, 2 Feb 1998, Demitrius wrote:

> Whoa! Hold on there, not so fast!
> 
> While I agree that your points about hardware are true, it's still to early
> to ignore the 256 color issue.
I didn't say I ignore it :)  I said that it takes a back seat to other
aspects about the page.  I design a page to look good, then worry about
the web palette later. (Usually, I will pick a web palatte color for base
colors for renderings, etc, which usually results in a compatibale image.
If it turns out that the image is simply unacceptable in 256 color mode, I
will make changes, but I don't go out of my way to cater to lower screen
resolutions.

> As a full time website developer, I am out in the "real world" pitching my
> services 2 or 3 times a week. I meet many, many average web surfers and do
> my presentations on their machines. I can count on less than one hand the
> number of computers that were set to more than 256 colors - even though most
> of them could be set higher. No kidding.
I know what you mean.  Most of the machines in this office are set to
either 16 or 256 color graphics.  The point I was making, however, is why
would I want to limit the detail of my graphics so that the image won't be
dithered on a low-res display?  IE, why create graphics IN the web palette
when you can create graphics that are COMPATIBLE with the web palette (The
trend I have seen is that people have been stripping their graphics of
much detail to hard-wire them to the web palette.. why not get the image
to a point where it will be acceptable in 256 color mode, but leave it in
high res RGB so that people who DO have the capability to see your work as
it was meant to be seen CAN  :)

> It seems that only the very recent crop of computers are set to thousands of
> colors or higher. *Most* factory new computers (PC) were set to 256 even
> though they can go higher.
Yes, I remember one customer who had a top of the line 200+MHz Packard
Bell that was set to 256 colors at 640x480.  I thought he was going to die
when I quadrupled the size of his screen (at 24 bit, no less)

> Sure, I'll change the settings for them, but my point is, it is still to
> early to ignore the 256 color issue if you are even partially concerned what
> your website are going to look like.
Yes, it is too early to cast off the antiquated web-palette,
unfortunately.  However, I think the time has come to not be held back by
the thing, but to use it as a testing tool, rather than THE palette for
EVERY image on the web.

Anyway, nuff said :)

Pat

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