Before you can consider the finer points of your design, you need to make the big decisions. Few decisions are more important than the color scheme your website is going to use.

Pay Attention To Contrast

You need to pick colors that provide enough contrast to make your text stand out in order to promote readability. Stay away from using a light colored font on a light color background as it would be very difficult to read. Remember your emphasis is on getting your message read. An unread message is a useless message.

Not Too Many Colors

You should choose 3 or 4 colors for your site, and use only those colors (or shades of those colors). Decide ahead of time which colors you’re going to use, and stick to it.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are opposite each other on a color wheel. The 3 most common sets are:
* red and green
* blue and orange
* yellow and purple.

These colors work surprisingly well together.

Complementary colors also are a good way to pick colors that will be easily readable against a certain background: look for the exact opposite color to maximise readability.

Analog Colors

Another approach to try is to pick colors that are similar to your main color, meaning that they’re near to it on the color wheel. Red, for example, goes well with its analog colors, orange and yellow. If overdone, this can make your site look too bright, but in moderation the results can look good. It’s no coincidence that these combinations often occur in nature.

Chromatic Colors

A personal favorite, chromatic colors use different shades and hues of 1 color for your entire design — nothing else except black and white. For example, you might use light blue, bright blue and dark blue together. This creates a sleek and professional look.

Take Colors From Nature

For inspiration for a color scheme, go for a walk outside. Take a look at plants, landscapes, and animals. Nature knows how to use colors — learn from it.

Color Blindness

Try to make sure that your design uses color to make itself aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t rely on the color scheme for anything essential. Statistics show that perhaps 10% of the web users are at least partially color blind, so you need to consider these people when you design your site. Make sure they can at least read your text.

To see things the way a color blind user would, visit vischeck.com.

Visit Web Design DIY to learn more. Ron King is a full-time researcher, writer, and web developer, visit his website at Website

Copyright 2005 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact and the links live.

Source: High Quality Article Database – 365Articles.com

  Basic Color Theory Scrapbooking Ideas
Looking for a simple, versatile scrapbooking idea that can make your pages interesting and great looking?  Try using the color wheel that you learned about in grade school to design well-coordinated eye-pleasing pages that really shine.  The simple color theories that you learned in grade school can serve you very well in scrapbooking today, and after reviewing the basics you'll be ready to create an unlimited number of great looking pages. Remember the color wheel?  Colors arranged in a circle, similar to a rainbow, and all of the colors related?  Red combines with yellow to make orange, yellow and blue combine....

  Make Your Site’s Navigation Options Highly Visible
Effective navigation stands out. It's clear, obvious, and highly visible. You'll need to have a clear section of the page designated for navigation--one that a visitor will immediately recognize as the navigation area when he arrives at the site. Navigation should not necessarily be the prime focus, but it must be highly visible. On many sites, the main navigation is overly subdued. It sort of "lurks" on the page, but it's not the kind of thing that really gets to a visitor's consciousness. It gets drowned out because there is too much color....

  Business Website Building Do’s and Don’ts
When it comes to building your own website for business, there are many things to consider when you build your home page to make it look professional, fast loading and easy to navigate. There are many ways and tools to make your site look good, entertaining and fun to watch, but that doesn't mean you should use them all. First, using a lot of web graphics, flash, banners and pictures on your home page may make it look fancy or cool; but it will slow down the loading time....

  Business Website Building Do’s and Don’ts
When it comes to building your own website for business, there are many things to consider when you build your home page to make it look professional, fast loading and easy to navigate. There are many ways and tools to make your site look good, entertaining and fun to watch, but that doesn't mean you should use them all. First, using a lot of web graphics, flash, banners and pictures on your home page may make it look fancy or cool; but it will slow down the loading time....

  A good logo vs. a FABULOUS logo
If you had a choice, which one would you choose, a good logo or a fabulous logo? Think about it for a second here, although I know the answer is crystal clear. Because many of us settle for a good logo created by a credible logo designer just because he or she is a credible logo designer who charges low prices. For example, I had a client who paid $500 for a normal-looking logo..... If you had a choice, which one would you choose, a good logo or a....

Trackback URL for this post:
http://www.problogtips.com/how-to-pick-your-website-colors/679/trackback/

Posted by Jaron in the catagory of... General Interest

1 Trackback »