Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Should You Worry About the Web Palette?

Remember that the web palette comes into play only on 8-bit monitors. 24-bit and 16-bit monitors do not use palettes and are capable of rendering your colors without dithering (although, there may be some slight color shifting on 16-bit monitors). For general web traffic, a mere 1 to 3% of users view web pages on 8-bit monitors, and those web users are probably used to reduced image quality by nature of the limited color display.

For a general consumer site, sacrificing color choice for 8-bit performance may not be worth it. However, if you know that a significant share of your audience may be using older systems with 8-bit monitors (such as schools), you may want to continue using the web palette in your designs to avoid unwanted dithering in flat color areas.

There are two opportunities to apply the web palette in the image creation process. The first is to choose web-safe colors when designing the image. As an alternative, you can apply the web palette to the image when reducing it to indexed color before saving or exporting a GIF or 8-bit PNG.

Figure 29-11. Designing with the web-safe palette prevents dithering