Web-Safe Color

In the mid-1990s, many displays were only capable of displaying 8-bit colors, meaning there were only 256 different colors that could be displayed. Generally, these colors weren’t even distributed perceptually uniform, so this left several gaps in an individuals gamut that could not be reproduced by their screen. Several workarounds were necessary to pick that closest color to a desired color, that was certain to be reproducible on anyone’s screen.

Through the 2000s, use of 8-bit displays dropped sharply in favor of 24-bit (TrueColor) displays, that could represent more than 16 million colors, essentially leaving no ‘gaps’ in the gamut. With the proliferation of these 24-bit displays, the use of “web-safe” colors is no longer necessary and should therefor no longer be a consideration in design.