The majority of people using the Web have
displays capable of millions of colors, and almost everyone else can view at least
When a hex value is made up of three pairs, the values can be abbreviated. For example,
the value #ffaa77 can be written #fa7. Some designers swear by this abbreviated
form. I tend to use the full six-figure hex value because it keeps things consistent.
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thousands of colors. Unless you??™re designing for a very specific audience with known
restricted hardware, stick with sRGB (the default color space of the Web??”see
www.w3.org/Graphics/Color/sRGB) and design in millions of colors. And consider yourself
lucky that it??™s not 1995.
Choosing formats for images
In order to present images online in the best possible way, it??™s essential to choose the best
file format when exporting and saving them. Although the save dialogs in most graphics
editors present a bewildering list of possible formats, the Web typically uses just two: JPEG
and GIF (along with the GIF89, or transparent GIF, variant), although a third, PNG, is finally
gaining popularity, largely due to Internet Explorer 7 finally offering full support for it.
JPEG
The JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format is used primarily for images that
require smooth color transitions and continuous tones, such as photographs. JPEG supports
millions of colors, and relatively little image detail is lost??”at least when compression
settings aren??™t too high.
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