4 ms·

I feel like the only other plausible color that could have been chosen is green, and even that seems too opinionated. Reasons being mostly associations (red, or

I feel like the only other plausible color that could have been chosen is green, and even that seems too opinionated. Reasons being mostly associations (red, orange, yellow meaning danger or stop, and green meaning go) and legibility on white or gray backgrounds. Add to that that people seem to disproportionately pick blue as their favorite color and they especially seem to favor it as a conservative or relaxing color choice. That is to say, I think the odds of two people independently picking blue are pretty good.

EGreg 5y ago
Actually, it was green. I am always surprised whenever Mozilla posts this, that no one seems to go straight to the horse’s mouth. So I will: https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html Rendition of links Q: I'm a student of visual communications and asked myself why links are blue. I found some answers that might be, for example blue is a color of learning, but I'm not sure what is right. Is there any reason, why links are colored blue ? A: There is no reason why one should use color, or blue, to signify links: it is just a default. I think the first WWW client (WorldWideWeb I wrote for the NeXT) used just underline to represent link, as it was a spare emphasis form which isn't used much in real documents. Blue came in as browsers went color - I don't remember which was the first to use blue. You can change the defaults in most browsers, and certainly in HTML documents, and of course with CSS style sheets. There are many examples of style sheets which use different colors. My guess is that blue is the darkest color and so threatens the legibility least. I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design, for nature and because it is supposed to be relaxing. Robert Cailliau made the WWW icon in many colors but chose green as he had always seen W in his head as green. One of the nicest link renditions was Dave Raggett's "Arena" browser which had a textured parchment background and embossed out the words of the link with a square apparently raised area.*
- kevingadd 5y ago
  That doesn't seem to suggest that links were green? "I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design" makes it sound like webpages were green, which is why the icon ended up being green.
- SeanLuke 5y ago
  I don't think he's saying the links were green here. At any rate, the links were clearly blue on early color WWW.app screenshots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb#/media/File:WorldWideWeb_FSF_GNU.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb#/media/File:World... https://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif https://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap...
- zinekeller 5y ago
  > I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design, for nature and because it is supposed to be relaxing. Robert Cailliau made the WWW icon in many colors but chose green as he had always seen W in his head as green. Maybe he meant here the webpages themselves (closer to how NTPSec's website (https://www.ntpsec.org/ https://www.ntpsec.org/) looks now) than to the hyperlink themselves.
  - dng88 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago
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- nixpulvis 5y ago
  He is clearly refering to the link color. Partially because that was the question and partially because his other comments, like "embossed out the words of the link with a square apparently raised area" are also clearly referring to link styles. That said, I find his answer very unsatisfying, though that should perhaps be expected of color arguments.
- beezle 5y ago
  I date myself but I actually used the Arena browser way back when before moving on to Netscrape. It was kinda cool the paper look though so many things were novel in the early 90s internet.
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Fatnino 5y ago
The built in help docs reader in windows had green underlined links. I want to say as far back as windows3.1 but certainly by windows95

EGreg 5y ago

Actually, it was green. I am always surprised whenever Mozilla posts this, that no one seems to go straight to the horse’s mouth. So I will: https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html Rendition of links Q: I'm a student of visual communications and asked myself why links are blue. I found some answers that might be, for example blue is a color of learning, but I'm not sure what is right. Is there any reason, why links are colored blue ? A: There is no reason why one should use color, or blue, to signify links: it is just a default. I think the first WWW client (WorldWideWeb I wrote for the NeXT) used just underline to represent link, as it was a spare emphasis form which isn't used much in real documents. Blue came in as browsers went color - I don't remember which was the first to use blue. You can change the defaults in most browsers, and certainly in HTML documents, and of course with CSS style sheets. There are many examples of style sheets which use different colors. My guess is that blue is the darkest color and so threatens the legibility least. I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design, for nature and because it is supposed to be relaxing. Robert Cailliau made the WWW icon in many colors but chose green as he had always seen W in his head as green. One of the nicest link renditions was Dave Raggett's "Arena" browser which had a textured parchment background and embossed out the words of the link with a square apparently raised area.*

kevingadd 5y ago
That doesn't seem to suggest that links were green? "I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design" makes it sound like webpages were green, which is why the icon ended up being green.
SeanLuke 5y ago
I don't think he's saying the links were green here. At any rate, the links were clearly blue on early color WWW.app screenshots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb#/media/File:WorldWideWeb_FSF_GNU.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb#/media/File:World... https://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif https://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap...
zinekeller 5y ago
> I used green whenever I could in the early WWW design, for nature and because it is supposed to be relaxing. Robert Cailliau made the WWW icon in many colors but chose green as he had always seen W in his head as green. Maybe he meant here the webpages themselves (closer to how NTPSec's website (https://www.ntpsec.org/ https://www.ntpsec.org/) looks now) than to the hyperlink themselves.
- dng88 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nixpulvis 5y ago
He is clearly refering to the link color. Partially because that was the question and partially because his other comments, like "embossed out the words of the link with a square apparently raised area" are also clearly referring to link styles. That said, I find his answer very unsatisfying, though that should perhaps be expected of color arguments.
beezle 5y ago
I date myself but I actually used the Arena browser way back when before moving on to Netscrape. It was kinda cool the paper look though so many things were novel in the early 90s internet.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Fatnino 5y ago

The built in help docs reader in windows had green underlined links. I want to say as far back as windows3.1 but certainly by windows95