Monitors display colors differently. Another challenge for web designers is to create graphics and text which look good under an incredibly wide range of monitor color capacities. A typical scanned photograph produces an image file with over 16 million colors. Unfortunately, most monitors today can display 64,000 colors, and many older monitors display 256 colors or in some cases only 16 colors.
An image that looks extraordinary with 64,000 colors on a new monitor can look appalling through an older monitor that displays only 256 colors, because the older monitor "dithers" the colors it cannot display. If you have ever seen images on a website covered with dots or bands of colors, this is the cause. Six common factors contribute to dithering and image degradation:
1. The image's color palette was not sufficiently reduced
2. The image was not correctly compressed into the "GIF" or "JPG" format
3. Lack of memory in the viewer's computer
4. Use of certain browsers, especially AOL's older versions
5. The viewer has set their monitor resolution incorrectly (i.e. someone with a 17" monitor set at 640 x 480 resolution--they should set it for 1024 x 768)
6. The viewer has set their monitor colors incorrectly (i.e. someone with a new monitor set at 256 colors which should be set at 16 million colors)
How many colors does your monitor display?
Try
these special color test Images.
I begin with a free initial consultation via e-mail. At this stage I will identify the objectives of your personal needs or the needs of your business or organization, and then review the information, products, services or resources you have to offer.
I will also evaluate the need of certain functionalities that can be provided to you. Based on this I will provide you with a scope document that summarizes the objectives of your website and outlines the content and navigational structure, free of charge.
At this point I will review with you your existing forms of advertising and the methods you use currently to promote your products, services, or information. I will also evaluate the source for the content of your website: product and price lists, newsletters, manuals, articles, forms, policies, charts, and your company or organization information.
In order to make your website dynamic I will also consider time sensitive information that you want to publicize: announcements, schedules, events, meetings, sales, and special activities or campaigns. You may also want to schedule periodic content updating for certain portions of your website.
Based on the scope document, I can proceed to the actual design and construction of your website. I will use the graphic material you provide to me.
Included in the creation of all our websites is the appropriate use of HTML Meta tags and effectively presented
text, which will help your website get high listings in the search engines. This is critical to getting traffic to your website, and
can make the difference between success or failure. Websites achieve TOP positions in the major search engines through these and other
techniques.
The last step is to upload the initial version of the website to my hosting account package. I will thoroughly test it in order to validate all hyperlinks and e-mail addresses, to make sure that all forms, buttons, Java scripts, etc. work properly, and to test browser compatibility, screen width, and colors.
At this point you can review your website and request any changes you would like me to make. I don’t want you to be more than happy with my work; I want you love it.
The same web page can look very different through different browsers. Even different versions of the same browser can change the appearance of a web page. I will view your website through the most popular browsers to make sure the layout is acceptable in both of them.