The 216-color web-safe color palette was developed in the mid-1990s. In the early days of the Internet, the web-safe 216 color palette emerged. Although computers had a capacity for at least 256 colors, only 216 colors are common to all older computers.
The image below is the most accurate representation of the palette. Even though it's small, you can magnify it after you download the graphic. It's a nice surprise ... so it's worth the time to download the graphic and open it in any graphic application.
(You can save the graphic of this palette by following the sequence for your computer's saving and downloading of a graphic. In some cases, you can just drag the graphic to your desktop, or alt click.)
These are web-safe greens from the 216 color palette.
You were limited to a certain range of greens (including these) if you address the web-safe range of hues.
If you used a green that is not one of the web-safe colors - and if someone's computer is limited to 256 colors - the green will consist of a series of green dots (from the web-safe greens) that approximate the color. For example, the green below is not a web-safe green.
You can see an exaggeration of the "dithering" - the patching together of web-safe greens. This is how this color might look on computers that have 8-bit color.
Note: Most computers today can display over 16.7 million colors (a olor depth of 24 bits).
Many say that the web-safe palette is a thing of the past. Toss it or keep it? Some say that it's still an invaluable tool for the first steps in defining a color. Others see the color palette as a sacred reminders of the early days of the web.
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