Building Web Sites All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Ensuring Visual Appeal

In This Chapter

• Understanding colors on Web sites

• Getting to know JPEGs and GIFs

• Choosing font families

• Buying stock images

• Refreshing an existing site

As you start to work on the visual aspects of your site — also known as the look and feel — you have to make a few decisions. You have to choose colors and imagery that support your message and convey a sense of what your organization is about. In some cases, you might have to buy images to use. You might also have to work with existing printed materials. You have many details to tend to, but don't let that overwhelm you. Within a short period of time and with the help of this chapter, getting the artwork under control will become second nature to you.

Colors on the Web

One of the first things you might encounter is a situation where an organization already has printed materials and is looking to enhance its presence with a Web site. The printed materials might have a look and feel already established and most certainly have a logo and color scheme in place.

Color on the Web is different than color on paper. This might sound like an obvious statement, but it actually isn't. Color in printed materials is represented by a system called CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). In short, it refers to the colors of ink that are used when printing. Web pages and Web graphics don't use CMYK; they use a system called RGB (red, green, blue), which is represented in HTML, CSS, and other Web scripts with hexadecimal ...