Color is a cost-effective
special effect.
There are all sorts of ways to grab attention on websites.
You could put twirling, swirling, blinking things on your web pages. We
talk a little about that on our design page. Then, of course, there's music. What better way to get someone's attention than a rousing rendition of
"Rocky Top" on their office desk speakers. But if you give them Blue Grass music and they like Classical
music, you've just lost a potential customer.
The problem with all
these ways of grabbing attention is that you're more likely to annoy your
website visitor than entertain them. The first time they see a clock twirl around when their
browser moves, they may find it intriguing. The first time they see your
Flash video, they may stay for the show. Or they might get tired of
waiting for the download and leave. And who wants to see the same
movie twice?
Color is a very cost effective way to get attention. It is
also the least likely to annoy your website visitors. Although, you can
even do that with color. Put dark neon colors on a black background -- the
neon being the text you want people to read -- and you'll annoy a number
of website visitors.
Neon
is not for everyone.
Color is a very cost
effective way to get attention. It is also the least likely to annoy your website visitors, unless you choose to use
neon text on a black background for your whole webpage or mix it up in a way that
makes no sense. A little, maybe. A lot, no!
If you're going to use neon on black,
stick to one light color.
Better yet, use white on black or any
other dark color.
Heck, if you want people to read it,
use black text on a white background and forget the whole neon
font idea.
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If you want people to read your text, and keep reading, put black text on a
white background, or white text on a dark color background. Contrast is
the key to readability. If your text is readable, then you can have all
the fun you want with color in the rest of your web design.
If you like blue, go for blue, whatever shade you like.
Same goes for any other color or combination of colors. You can even mix
up a color scheme on your web pages. You can have a
consistent design through a common layout scheme, even if you play around
a little with the color. Generally, if we play around with color, we keep
the layout consistent. If we play around with the layout, we keep the
color consistent.
You can select the color of your website from the typical 256-web color chart
(white
background and black
background). Notice how the same colors look different on the light
and dark backgrounds. You can even pick your colors from one of those free
paint sample charts they give out at the hardware stores. We often use
those to decide on a color scheme for a website.
We'll start with the color you think you want, then we'll
fiddle with it -- "More red in that purple, sir, or more blue?"
-- until we get the exact color you want. If you
want a color between dark violet and purple, we can give it to you. That's
the great thing about having digital crayons. They're magic!
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