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Is A Browser-Safe
Palette Still Important?

When the Net really began to take off in the 1990s, most video cards were 8-bit and the differences between the colours that PCs and Macs would display were significant - so using a Web Safe palette was vitally important for anyone who wanted to ensure that their website visitors would get to see the same thing regardless of the computer they were using.

But the rise of more powerful video cards and the steady melding of PC and Mac video standards over the years has tended to make Web Safe palettes much less important than they once used to be.

All the same, web safe palettes are still very useful if you want to be 100% certain that your site will render itself exactly the same across all platforms and video cards. And they're also useful if you're new to web design and find a full 16-million colour palette a bit too daunting to start out with (sometimes limited choices are better than too many choices!)

The basic Web Safe palette was developed by programmers rather than designers so it contains many colours that are unusable and many others that are near-to-useless.

But Netscape's "safe enough" extensions added a lot of very pleasant tonal shadings to the basic set and helped give early web design efforts a major boost.

They still perform that function today, even though the Netscape browser itself finally winked out of existence in 2008.

The 140 Netscape Colour Names
Way, way back in the mid-1990s when browser pioneer Netscape released Netscape Navigator 2.0, they also unveiled 140 "named" colours to extend the basic browser-safe colour palette.

And while these new colours weren't totally browser-safe, they were certainly "safe enough" (ie the amount of colour dithering that occurs when these colours are viewed on various PC and Mac monitors is almost negligible).

But these additional colours weren't supported by either Internet Explorer 2.0 or 3.0 when Microsoft decided to muscle its way into the browser market soon afterwards. So these welcome extensions to the often frustratingly limited browser-safe palette have tended to be forgotten since that time.

However, Microsoft began to quietly support these colours from Internet Explorer 4.0 onwards. So if you'd like to use them, it's quite safe to do so.

Most of these additional colours are shades or "off-tones" of the more usable portions of the browser-safe palette, and they can greatly extend your range of practical colour combinations.

One tip, though: although the 16 primary colours (red, blue, green etc) can safely be invoked by using either their name OR their hex value, support for the additional names (eg: aliceblue, azure etc) is patchy in Internet Explorer to this day. As a result - if you want to use these additional colours - you should specify their hexadecimal values if you want to be certain that viewers using Internet Explorer will see the colours you intend them to see.

This chart below shows each colour name, its hexadecimal value and the corresponding Red/Green/Blue values. The chart is ordered alphabetically by colour name (our browser-safe colour chart is ordered by hue).

You can also printy a hard-copy of this page for your own reference by clicking here.

 
The Netscape Named Colour Palette

aliceblue
#F0F8FF
R: 240
G: 248
B: 255
aqua
#00FFFF
R: 000
G: 255
B: 255
antiquewhite
#FAEBD7
R: 250
G: 235
B: 215
aquamarine
#7FFFD4
R: 127
G: 255
B: 212
azure
#F0FFFF
R: 240
G: 255
B: 255
beige
#F5F5DC
R: 245
G: 245
B: 220
bisque
#FFE4C4
R: 255
G: 228
B: 196
black
#000000
R: 000
G: 000
B: 000
blanchedalmond
#FFEBCD
R: 255
G: 235
B: 205
blue
#0000FF
R: 000
G: 000
B: 255
blueviolet
#8A2BE2
R: 138
G: 043
B: 226
brown
#A52A2A
R: 165
G: 042
B: 042
burlywood
#DEB887
R: 222
G: 184
B: 135
cadetblue
#5F9EA0
R: 095
G: 158
B: 160
chartreuse
#7FFF00
R: 127
G: 255
B: 000
chocolate
#D2691E
R: 210
G: 105
B: 030
coral
#FF7F50
R: 255
G: 127
B: 080
cornflowerblue
#6495ED
R: 100
G: 149
B: 237
cornsilk
#FFF8DC
R: 255
G: 248
B: 220
crimson
#DC143C
R: 220
G: 020
B: 060
cyan
#00FFFF
R: 000
G: 255
B: 255
darkblue
#00008B
R: 000
G: 000
B: 139
darkcyan
#008B8B
R: 000
G: 139
B: 139
darkgoldenrod
#B8860B
R: 184
G: 134
B: 011
darkgray
#A9A9A9
R: 169
G: 169
B: 169
darkgreen
#006400
R: 000
G: 100
B: 000
darkkhaki
#BDB76B
R: 189
G: 183
B: 107
darkmagenta
#8B008B
R: 139
G: 000
B: 139
darkolivegreen
#556B2F
R: 085
G: 107
B: 047
darkorange
#FF8C00
R: 255
G: 140
B: 000
darkorchid
#9932CC
R: 153
G: 050
B: 204
darkred
#8B0000
R: 139
G: 000
B: 000
darksalmon
#E9967A
R: 233
G: 150
B: 122
darkseagreen
#8FBC8F
R: 143
G: 188
B: 143
darkslateblue
#483D8B
R: 072
G: 061
B: 139
darkslategray
#2F4F4F
R: 047
G: 079
B: 079
darkturquoise
#00CED1
R: 000
G: 206
B: 209
darkviolet
#9400D3
R: 148
G: 000
B: 211
deeppink
#FF1493
R: 255
G: 020
B: 147
deepskyblue
#00BFBF
R: 000
G: 191
B: 191
dimgray
#696969
R: 105
G: 105
B: 105
dodgerblue
#1E90FF
R: 030
G: 144
B: 255
firebrick
#B22222
R: 178
G: 034
B: 034
floralwhite
#FFFAF0
R: 255
G: 250
B: 240
forestgreen
#228B22
R: 034
G: 139
B: 034
fuchsia
#FF00FF
R: 255
G: 000
B: 255
ghostwhite
#F8F8FF
R: 248
G: 248
B: 255
gainsboro
#DCDCDC
R: 220
G: 220
B: 220
gold
#FFD700
R: 255
G: 215
B: 000
goldenrod
#DAA520
R: 218
G: 165
B: 032
gray
#808080
R: 128
G: 128
B: 128
green
#008000
R: 000
G: 128
B: 000
greenyellow
#ADFF2F
R: 173
G: 255
B: 047
honeydew
#F0FFF0
R: 240
G: 255
B: 240
hotpink
#FF69B4
R: 255
G: 105
B: 180
indianred
#CD5C5C
R: 205
G: 092
B: 092
indigo
#4B0082
R: 075
G: 000
B: 130
ivory
#FFFFF0
R: 255
G: 255
B: 240
khaki
#F0E68C
R: 240
G: 230
B: 140
lavender
#E6E6FA
R: 230
G: 230
B: 250
lavenderblush
#FFF0F5
R: 255
G: 240
B: 245
lawngreen
#7CFC00
R: 124
G: 252
B: 000
lemonchiffon
#FFFACD
R: 255
G: 250
B: 205
lightblue
#ADD8E6
R: 173
G: 216
B: 230
lightcoral
#F08080
R: 240
G: 128
B: 128
lightcyan
#E0FFFF
R: 255
G: 255
B: 224
lightgoldenrodyellow
#FAFAD2
R: 250
G: 250
B: 210
lightgreen
#90EE90
R: 144
G: 238
B: 144
lightgrey
#D3D3D3
R: 211
G: 211
B: 211
lightpink
#FFB6C1
R: 255
G: 182
B: 193
lightsalmon
#FFA07A
R: 255
G: 160
B: 122
lightseagreen
#20B2AA
R: 032
G: 178
B: 170
lightskyblue
#87CEFA
R: 135
G: 206
B: 250
lightslategray
#778899
R: 119
G: 136
B: 153
lightsteelblue
#B0C4DE
R: 176
G: 196
B: 222
lightyellow
#FFFFB0
R: 255
G: 255
B: 176
lime
#00FF00
R: 000
G: 255
B: 000
limegreen
#32CD32
R: 050
G: 205
B: 050
linen
#FAF0E6
R: 250
G: 240
B: 230
magenta
#FF00FF
R: 255
G: 000
B: 255
maroon
#800000
R: 128
G: 000
B: 000
mediumaquamarine
#66CDAA
R: 102
G: 205
B: 170
mediumblue
#0000CD
R: 000
G: 000
B: 205
mediumorchid
#BA55D3
R: 186
G: 085
B: 211
mediumpurple
#9370DB
R: 147
G: 112
B: 219
mediumseagreen
#3CB371
R: 060
G: 179
B: 113
mediumslateblue
#7B68EE
R: 123
G: 104
B: 238
mediumspringgreen
#00FA9A
R: 000
G: 250
B: 154
mediumturquoise
#48D1CC
R: 072
G: 209
B: 204
mediumvioletred
#C71585
R: 199
G: 021
B: 133
midnightblue
#191970
R: 025
G: 025
B: 112
mintcream
#F5FFFA
R: 245
G: 255
B: 250
mistyrose
#FFE4E1
R: 255
G: 228
B: 225
moccasin
#FFE4B5
R: 255
G: 228
B: 181
navajowhite
#FFDEAD
R: 255
G: 222
B: 173
navy
#000080
R: 000
G: 000
B: 128
oldlace
#FDF5E6
R: 253
G: 245
B: 230
olive
#808000
R: 128
G: 128
B: 000
olivedrab
#6B8E23
R: 107
G: 142
B: 035
orange
#FFA500
R: 255
G: 165
B: 000
orangered
#FF4500
R: 255
G: 069
B: 000
orchid
#DA70D6
R: 218
G: 112
B: 214
palegoldenrod
#EEE8AA
R: 238
G: 232
B: 170
palegreen
#98FB98
R: 152
G: 251
B: 152
paleturquoise
#AFEEEE
R: 175
G: 238
B: 238
palevioletred
#DB7093
R: 219
G: 112
B: 147
papayawhip
#FFEFD5
R: 255
G: 239
B: 213
peachpuff
#FFDAB9
R: 255
G: 218
B: 185
peru
#CD853F
R: 205
G: 133
B: 063
pink
#FFC0CB
R: 255
G: 192
B: 203
plum
#DDA0DD
R: 221
G: 160
B: 221
powderblue
#B0E0E6
R: 176
G: 224
B: 230
purple
#800080
R: 128
G: 000
B: 128
red
#FF0000
R: 255
G: 000
B: 000
rosybrown
#BC8F8F
R: 188
G: 143
B: 143
royalblue
#4169E1
R: 065
G: 105
B: 225
saddlebrown
#8B4513
R: 139
G: 069
B: 019
salmon
#FA8072
R: 250
G: 128
B: 114
sandybrown
#F4A460
R: 244
G: 164
B: 096
seagreen
#2E8B57
R: 046
G: 139
B: 087
seashell
#FFF5EE
R: 255
G: 245
B: 238
sienna
#A0522D
R: 160
G: 082
B: 045
silver
#C0C0C0
R: 192
G: 192
B: 192
skyblue
#87CEEB
R: 135
G: 206
B: 235
slateblue
#6A5ACD
R: 106
G: 090
B: 205
slategray
#708090
R: 112
G: 128
B: 144
snow
#FFFEE1
R: 255
G: 254
B: 225
springgreen
#00FF7F
R: 000
G: 255
B: 127
steelblue
#4682B4
R: 070
G: 130
B: 180
tan
#D2B48C
R: 210
G: 130
B: 140
teal
#008080
R: 000
G: 128
B: 128
thistle
#D8BFD8
R: 216
G: 191
B: 216
tomato
#FF6347
R: 255
G: 099
B: 071
turquoise
#40E0D0
R: 064
G: 224
B: 208
violet
#EE82EE
R: 238
G: 130
B: 238
wheat
#F5DEB3
R: 245
G: 222
B: 179
white
#FFFFFF
R: 255
G: 255
B: 255
whitesmoke
#F5F5F5
R: 245
G: 245
B: 245
yellow
#FFFF00
R: 255
G: 255
B: 000
yellowgreen
#9ACD32
R: 154
G: 205
B: 050

 

This page last updated: 01-Dec-2008

 


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