A Complete Guide to Web Design

316 Chapter 17 – Designing Graphics with the Web Palette

Color Blenders

Web Design in a Nutshell, eMatter Edition

Disadvantages

• The controlled dither can add to the file size if used as a fill for large areas of
  the graphic.


• It is more difficult to get inline images to blend seamlessly over a back-
  ground tiled with a hybrid color. For instance, an image with a hybrid blue
  background may not line up correctly with the same hybrid blue in the
  browser background. For best results, create the original image with a back-
  ground that is similar to the hybrid blue, and use transparency.

Using ColorSafe

ColorSafe from BoxTop Software is demonstrated here, but the interface is nearly

exactly the same as that of DitherBox. Figure 17-5 shows the options in the Color-

Safe dialog box.

Color Picker

The Color Picker is where you create “hybrid colors” from two web-safe colors.

RGB sliders allow you to choose any RGB color combination and see the imme-

diate results in the preview boxes.

If you have a specific color you’d like to convert, load it as the foreground color

before launching the ColorSafe filter. When you click the “Fore/Back” icon, your

color will be translated into its nearest hybrid. The controls on the left allow you

name your hybrid colors and save whole lists of names for future use.

The “Fill” button will automatically fill the selected area in your image. Note:

ColorSafe will not open if your image is empty and no areas are selected.

Pattern Fill

The Pattern Fill function allows you to create custom patterns out of colors in the

Web Palette (or whatever palette you choose to load) up to 8×8 pixels in size.

These patterns can be used wherever pattern fills are used in Photoshop.

Figure 17-5: ColorSafe dialog box for mixing colors from two web-safe colors