4 ms·

Mosaic was the first browser I used, and the first I wrote websites for (I still only test in one browser ;) ). Something the article doesn't touch on is the f

Mosaic was the first browser I used, and the first I wrote websites for (I still only test in one browser ;) ). Something the article doesn't touch on is the fact that there wasn't really such a thing as hex colors like "#0000ff" back then. You could use them, but no one did because they weren't guaranteed to work properly. There was a list of 256 "web safe colors" that you could use that were the 8 bit palette that most computers supported in VGA graphics (at 640x480 resolution), and then a further list of HTML colors that could be used if the user had a graphics card that could use 16 bit SVGA graphics. Using 24 bit hex code colors didn't come along until a little later, when computers were likely to display them properly. In other words, links weren't #0000ff. They were "blue".

bitwize 5y ago
Yes, people did use the hex codes back then. You just had to take care that the ones you used were on the list of 216 (not 256) web safe colors. The VGA palette was programmable and supported up to 262,144 colors, but a standard set of 216 was used in browsers to allow Windows, Mac OS, and other programs color table slots with which to draw their standard colors. I think some browsers understood X11 color names like "blue" or "DarkSlateGray", but there are more than 216 of those, so same caveat applies.
- geophile 5y ago
  The ASCII color codes for a terminal are in a 6x6x6 space. That’s 216. Does that explain the number of web-safe colors?
  - bitwize 5y ago
    The same space is used for the web colors, but I don't know if there's a causal connection there.
  - duskwuff 5y ago
    No. 256-color mode wasn't added to XTerm until July 1999: https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_111 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_111
- tyingq 5y ago
  >some browsers understood X11 color names This still exists in some weird places. For example, I have a Hue portable light that connects to Alexa and can change colors. But I can only tell it X11 color names...it doesn't understand anything else. Which is funny given that both devices are fairly modern.
recursive 5y ago
It was actually only 216 web safe colors. You could use names, or you could use colors whose RGB components were each multiples of 0x33. (00, 33, 66, 99, cc, ff)
- DonHopkins 5y ago
  216 = 6 * 6 * 6 -- That's a "Color Cube": a 6x6x6 3D cube of 216 equally spaced colors. Not necessarily the colors you'd actually want, though, just mathematically convenient. Figuring out the closest color in the cube to any color is quick and easy (so you can do a quick 24=>8 error diffusion dither, for example, which needs to do that every pixel), but lots of the colors suck. Web-Safe Colors (a Color Cube) https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=23671&seqNum=4 https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=23671&seqNu... Not to be confused with a Time Cube. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Cube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Cube
irrational 5y ago
I always used the hex codes for the web safe colors. I’ve been building web pages for 25+ years and I’ve never used color names.
reaperducer 5y ago
the 8 bit palette that most computers supported in VGA graphics There were plenty of us who surfed the web in less than VGA. I was on monochrome. OS/2 Warp had a web browser and supported CGA: https://www.mit.edu/activities/os2/faq/os2faq0201.html https://www.mit.edu/activities/os2/faq/os2faq0201.html
KingOfCoders 5y ago
Around that time I brought a magazine to the web as a paid job and had endless discussions about the fact that the colors were "not accurate" and "not following CI".
- kstrauser 5y ago
  I remember those days! Cue a design editor holding Pantone cards up to the screen and scowling. That also led to interesting things like websites telling you how to calibrate your monitor so that they'd render correctly, e.g. http://sasg.com/help.html http://sasg.com/help.html .
jandrese 5y ago
One underappreciated aspect of paletted computers is that you couldn't just take the whole palette for yourself, you have to leave some colors for the OS and for the other applications running alongside you. Palette management gets really complicated when you have multiple applications trying to share one. Even though it takes three times as much video memory, you save considerable complexity when you go true color.
- kbelder 5y ago
  Yeah, it really was a hindrance to multitasking. Your palette would sometimes reshuffle as you switched applications, making it seem like your screen was about to explode.
itomato 5y ago
Specifically, "blue3": "anchorColor: color Color to shade anchors whose corresponding documents haven't been previously visited. Default is blue3. visitedAnchorColor: color Color to shade anchors whose corresponding documents have been previously visited. Default is violetred4." https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/support/html/Docs/resources.html https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/support/html/Docs/resources...

bitwize 5y ago

Yes, people did use the hex codes back then. You just had to take care that the ones you used were on the list of 216 (not 256) web safe colors. The VGA palette was programmable and supported up to 262,144 colors, but a standard set of 216 was used in browsers to allow Windows, Mac OS, and other programs color table slots with which to draw their standard colors. I think some browsers understood X11 color names like "blue" or "DarkSlateGray", but there are more than 216 of those, so same caveat applies.

geophile 5y ago
The ASCII color codes for a terminal are in a 6x6x6 space. That’s 216. Does that explain the number of web-safe colors?
- bitwize 5y ago
  The same space is used for the web colors, but I don't know if there's a causal connection there.
- duskwuff 5y ago
  No. 256-color mode wasn't added to XTerm until July 1999: https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_111 https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.log.html#xterm_111
tyingq 5y ago
>some browsers understood X11 color names This still exists in some weird places. For example, I have a Hue portable light that connects to Alexa and can change colors. But I can only tell it X11 color names...it doesn't understand anything else. Which is funny given that both devices are fairly modern.

recursive 5y ago

It was actually only 216 web safe colors. You could use names, or you could use colors whose RGB components were each multiples of 0x33. (00, 33, 66, 99, cc, ff)

DonHopkins 5y ago
216 = 6 * 6 * 6 -- That's a "Color Cube": a 6x6x6 3D cube of 216 equally spaced colors. Not necessarily the colors you'd actually want, though, just mathematically convenient. Figuring out the closest color in the cube to any color is quick and easy (so you can do a quick 24=>8 error diffusion dither, for example, which needs to do that every pixel), but lots of the colors suck. Web-Safe Colors (a Color Cube) https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=23671&seqNum=4 https://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=23671&seqNu... Not to be confused with a Time Cube. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Cube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Cube

irrational 5y ago

I always used the hex codes for the web safe colors. I’ve been building web pages for 25+ years and I’ve never used color names.

reaperducer 5y ago

the 8 bit palette that most computers supported in VGA graphics There were plenty of us who surfed the web in less than VGA. I was on monochrome. OS/2 Warp had a web browser and supported CGA: https://www.mit.edu/activities/os2/faq/os2faq0201.html https://www.mit.edu/activities/os2/faq/os2faq0201.html

KingOfCoders 5y ago

Around that time I brought a magazine to the web as a paid job and had endless discussions about the fact that the colors were "not accurate" and "not following CI".

kstrauser 5y ago
I remember those days! Cue a design editor holding Pantone cards up to the screen and scowling. That also led to interesting things like websites telling you how to calibrate your monitor so that they'd render correctly, e.g. http://sasg.com/help.html http://sasg.com/help.html .

jandrese 5y ago

One underappreciated aspect of paletted computers is that you couldn't just take the whole palette for yourself, you have to leave some colors for the OS and for the other applications running alongside you. Palette management gets really complicated when you have multiple applications trying to share one. Even though it takes three times as much video memory, you save considerable complexity when you go true color.

kbelder 5y ago
Yeah, it really was a hindrance to multitasking. Your palette would sometimes reshuffle as you switched applications, making it seem like your screen was about to explode.

itomato 5y ago

Specifically, "blue3": "anchorColor: color Color to shade anchors whose corresponding documents haven't been previously visited. Default is blue3. visitedAnchorColor: color Color to shade anchors whose corresponding documents have been previously visited. Default is violetred4." https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/support/html/Docs/resources.html https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/support/html/Docs/resources...