BROWSER SAFE SPECS

Browser software is your window into the web. You can't see web pages without the browser, so the browser plays a huge role in how your images are displayed; especially when the web is viewed on 256-color systems.

Fortunately, the most popular browsers (Netscape, Mosaic, and Internet Explorer) all share the same palette management process. They work with the system palettes of each respective platform: Mac, Windows, and Win95. This means that any artwork you create will be forced into a variety of different palettes, depending on which operating system it is viewed from.

Mac System Palette

Win95 Palette

Windows Palette

Although these three palettes look entirely different, they share 216 common colors. If you use the shared colors, referred to in this book as "browser-safe" colors, you will eliminate a lot of cross-platform inconsistencies with color artwork published over the web.

Thankfully, there are common colors found within the 256 system palettes--216 common colors, in fact. Each operating system reserves 40 colors out of the possible 256 for its own use. This means that if you stick to the 216 common colors, they will be universally honored between browsers, operating systems, and computer platforms.

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