Chapter 2Color

Whether you’re defusing a ticking time bomb, or trying to design a decent-looking site, if you choose the wrong color—you’re doomed. Okay, so the wrong color selection for a client’s site might not be the death of you, but it could curtail your budding career as a web designer. Choosing colors is no simple matter. There are aesthetic, identity, and usability considerations to take into account. And, to make matters worse, most modern displays can render more than sixteen million colors. That’s an infinite number of horrible color combinations just waiting to happen!

Fortunately, there’s no need to be a swatchbook-carrying color consultant to make good color choices. A wealth of knowledge is available, from touchy-feely (as I like ...

Get The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.