Netscape specified 216 colors that have precedence in web browsers based on the 256 colors displayed within an 8-bit system. As 40 colors displayed differently between PCs and MACs, they were eliminated.
These 216 colors, known as web safe colors, are recognized by all web browsers and operating systems, which means these colors will look about the same within any browser.
RGB and Hexadecimal Color Codes
Colors are made up of 3 sets of RGB numbers representing the amount of Red, Green and Blue contained within a color. These colors are represented as hexadecimal values.
For example, the hexadecimal numbers for black is #000000. The first two numbers (00) represent the amount of red the color contains. The second two numbers (00) represent the amount of green and the last two numbers (00) represent the amount of blue the color contains. When a color, such as black, contains 00 amount of red, green or blue, this means it contains no amount of that color or 0%.
However, colors containing RGB values of FF contain the most amount of a color or 100%. For example, the hexadecimal value for white is #FFFFFF, which means it contains the most amount of red, green and blue.
The hexadecimal numbers for red are FF0000. To help you to understand this a little bit better, if we break down the hexadecimal numbers, we will find that the color red contains FF amount of red, which is the highest amount. It contains 00 amount of green and 00 amount of blue, both of which are the lowest.
Color
Red
Green
Blue
Hexadecimal
Black
0
0
0
#000000
White
255
255
255
#FFFFFF
Red
255
0
0
#FF0000
Green
0
255
0
#00FF00
Blue
0
0
255
#0000FF
Yellow
255
255
0
#FFFF00
216 Web Safe Colors Chart (Hexadecimal & RGB Values)
