What Are Web Safe Colours?

Date First Published: 25th November 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Design

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 8/10

Learn more about what web safe colours are this article.

Web safe colours, also known as browser safe colours, are 216 colours that will not be dithered (altered) when shown on a computer monitor only capable of displaying an 8-bit colour. Even though an 8-bit colour can display 256 colours of the 16 million available colours, only 216 are displayed consistently and are considered to be web safe colours. Web safe colours were created so that website owners know which colours were compatible with all displays.

How To Determine If A Colour Is Web Safe?

The RGB of a colour needs to be broken up into three separate components. The numbers must be multiples of 33 and the RGB cannot contain numbers and letters other than the following: 00 33 66 99 CC FF.

For example, the colour code #FF66CC is web safe because it contains the number 66, which is a multiple of 33 and does not contain letters other than ‘CC’ and ‘FF’. #010101 is not web safe because the numbers are not multiples of 33.

Are Web Safe Colours Still Important?

No, web safe colours are not that important now. As of now, all modern display devices support millions of colours, but in 1996, a few years after the introduction of the World Wide Web when web safe colours were defined, most computers had 8-bit graphics cards. The main reason for this colour limitation was the high cost of video RAM. The use of computers with 8-bit graphics cards has greatly declined and they are now outdated, so web safe colours are irrelevant for today’s computers. Using web safe colours will only ensure that the colours are compatible for a tiny number of users, around 2%.