web safe color palettes?

[sagedavis]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering, is there possibly a way, or a plugin that someone might be able to create, that will allow for a websafe color pallet, or something.

I am doing an image that pretty much requires a transparent background, so, gif is the only way to go (as PNG isn't supported by every browser)...

my gradient (well actually lighting effect), causes the image to not be so smooth as I would like it to be.

sample image

Any help?

Thanks

Sage

[kirby145]

All images are websafe. However gif can handle less colors than a png (am i right?)

So if you want a higher quality you can't use gif..

png supports transparency, technically

[Ghost Ranger]

I think the web safe color thing doesn't matter any more because as you can see from this website, 95.5% of people on the internet use modern browsers that should be able to display more than web safe color list.

Also, it says on this page:

Some years ago, when most computers only supported 256 different colors, a list of 216 Web Safe Colors was suggested as a Web standard.

[sagedavis]

ok, that makes sense, it is probably just the confines of the gif format.

I will try to work around it then, I may just have to do JPG, and match the background color to whatever website we are putting it on... ooooor, try to save first as a larger gif and then shrink it down then blur, and see what that does.

Thanks for the quick reply

Sage

[Ghost Ranger]

You could use PNG and tell anyone using IE6 (because it doesn't display transparent PNGs right) to get a better browser like Firefox, Opera or IE7.

[sagedavis]

yeah, I COULD, however, this is for a business website. Under other cercumstances, I would have no problem doing it.

This is a web project for a new company, and I don't really have a lot of creative input as far as what text apears on the site, of course, I am doing the graphics ALL in PDN.

Thanks again

Sage

[Ghost Ranger]

Now that I think about it, try using the Feather Plugin

you should end up w/ something like this:

[Rick Brewster]

There's a web browser out there that doesn't support PNG?

If so I guarantee it's only in use by less than 0.1% of the population on archaic computers or devices. Unless you're specifically targetting that market then I would not worry about it.

[pyrochild]

There's a web browser out there that doesn't support PNG?

If so I guarantee it's only in use by less than 0.1% of the population on archaic computers or devices. Unless you're specifically targetting that market then I would not worry about it.

So you're saying that IE6 is in use by less than 0.1% of the population? Wishful thinking. It supports opaque PNGs, but transparency? Nope! It's maddening.

[sagedavis]

I have one website that gets quite a few hits on a monthly basis, and this month.

44.26 percent of hits made by IE users were with IE6, which does not support transparency of PNG files.

That's a HUGE percentage of people to loose due to unprofessional looking website... LOL.

For now, I can just deal with matching the background to the website's background.

I redid this logo, and uploaded it to http://www.venteglobal.com/vglogo.jpg

I changed it up a little bit so that the shadowing wasn't so much. The first one was a great effect, but, to use as a logo might prove difficult for any black and white print that might happen for newpaper adds and so forth.

Thanks again

Sage

[Ghost Ranger]

There's a web browser out there that doesn't support PNG?

If so I guarantee it's only in use by less than 0.1% of the population on archaic computers or devices. Unless you're specifically targetting that market then I would not worry about it.

According to This Site, as of June, 37.3% of people on the internet use IE6, which as stated doesn't display transparent PNGs right.

I was surprised that so many people are still using IE6, because it is such a flawed browser (if you can even call it one).

[BoltBait]

You all keep saying that IE6 does not handle transparent images properly. However, CMD is helping me with my web site and he got it to work properly with IE6: http://cmdsketchpad.com/bbtest/

The second dominoe icon on the left shows up properly on IE6.

The trick is all in the CSS.

[Crazy Man Dan]

The trick use an IE6 hack to set the Filter attribute to load the transparency.

This code comes courtesy of Deborah, and can be found here.

[BoltBait]

...which reminds me, I still need to update http://www.BoltBait.com with this new code...

[pyrochild]

You all keep saying that IE6 does not handle transparent images properly. However, CMD is helping me with my web site and he got it to work properly with IE6: http://cmdsketchpad.com/bbtest/

The second dominoe icon on the left shows up properly on IE6.

The trick is all in the CSS.

IE6 doesn't support PNG transparency properly. What CMD does is a hack. Hack != Support.

[HITMAN-X-]

Before IE7 I used IE6 with transparency and had no problem. I belive the IE6 transparency problem came from a windows update.

[BoltBait]

You all keep saying that IE6 does not handle transparent images properly. However, CMD is helping me with my web site and he got it to work properly with IE6: http://cmdsketchpad.com/bbtest/

The second dominoe icon on the left shows up properly on IE6.

The trick is all in the CSS.

IE6 doesn't support PNG transparency properly. What CMD does is a hack. Hack != Support.

It supports it just fine.

You could say that IE6 doesn't support jpg's because you have to enter some html... etc.

It is just a syntax thing that web site developers need to use in order to get their images to show up properly.

I would only call it a "hack" if the END USER needed to do something to view the site properly. Or, if you needed to put browser specific CONDITIONAL code in...

[Crazy Man Dan]

...Or, if you needed to put browser specific CONDITIONAL code in...

Well, technically, the [ *html ] declaration is a browser specific hack. IE6 is the only one that will read it... It's somewhat better than an tag but...

[Deborah]

I'd definitely call the [*html] part a hack - that's done to remove the background image for IE6 only

(no point in having a transparent image overlayed on top of the non-transparent version )

The filter itself is something developed by MS and we're using it for its intended purpose, so I wouldn't consider that part a hack.

[BoltBait]

Hehe. I was just playing "Devil's Advocate". :twisted:

Yeah, its a hack.

[sagedavis]

BB,

funny...

seriously, I don't know, I don't mess around with hacks on websites, only because, I shouldn't have to. If it doesn't work without a workaround, I generally don't do it, simply because, I can always go at it another way.

Why have the option of 2 images to get the same look when one can make the 1 image LOOK the same....

My only reasoning for wanting transparencies to begin with is, JIC, I decide to change the background color of the site at a later date.

I set up templates for my sites, with heavy CSS work so that it only takes a few changes here and there to change the look and feel of a site. Especially with my customers... They never know what they want.

I get through a project and all their changes never look the same as what they first described.... it's just silly... but, CSS is the lifesaver there... and GIF transparency is supported on the major browsers.

I do, however, dream of the day when people wake up and start using IE7 so that I can use PNG totally, it's far superior (IMHO) to GIF...

I think I will just fake the backgrounds right now and go with JPG (also, better than GIF)...

you all rock so much with this discussion

Sage

[Crazy Man Dan]

The problem is, IE7 will only work on XP and up. As long as Windows 2000 is still used, IE6 will still be used. Unless of course everyone wakes up and starts using FireFox / Opera... >_>

Hehe. I was just playing "Devil's Advocate". :twisted:

I may be playing The Devil in an upcoming local play... :twisted:

[Ash]

I may be playing The Devil in an upcoming local play... :twisted:

Do post the pic when you do

[sagedavis]

CMD,

Well, yeah, Firefox would be better... actually, it looks like people are really waking up to firefox...

On one my sites with quite a bit of traffic, about 27 percent of the users use firefox... Still, something like 60 percent of my users use IE. Of IE users almost half of them are using older versions of IE (IE6)... Gladly none are still useing IE4.. LOL..

I like FF. I should download it again since my OS reinstall.

Sage

[Paint_boy]

CMD,

Well, yeah, Firefox would be better... actually, it looks like people are really waking up to firefox...

On one my sites with quite a bit of traffic, about 27 percent of the users use firefox... Still, something like 60 percent of my users use IE. Of IE users almost half of them are using older versions of IE (IE6)... Gladly none are still useing IE4.. LOL..

I like FF. I should download it again since my OS reinstall.

Sage

Firefox is the best choice. If you get Firefox and use themes try iSafari 0.7 Not 0.6.5.

So what browser are you using that doesn't support PNG? Firefox is what I would chose... and it's what I use... Firefox support aPNG too... Well Gran Paradiso Alpha 7...

A web browser that doesn't support PNG is almost sad... PNG is the type of image that I mainly use because it is data loseless or something like that... with bmp or jpg the picture turns fuzzy after I save it.