Choosing Web Site Colours

Many people inquire whether their web site color has any bearing on the success of their site. I am here to tell you that its probably not the main colour but the colour combination being used that may be effecting your success.

Colour schemes are not everything, they simply set the mood for your visitors experience. To properly address this topic lets take a look at the history on how we have read text based mediums in the past.

Off White Pages and Ease of Reading

Paper back books are made with thin paper that develops a yellowish tinge to the page. This off white colour diffuses the contrast of the black text on the stark white page, making it easier on the eyes to read.

This is the same case with newspapers. This does not mean that having a pure white background is bad just that an off white colour is better for lengthy reading.

I have also come across many arguments against using a black background for a web page. but you will notice that old computers used a amber or green text on a black background. These colour combinations are proven by the evolution of programming (DOS programmers) to be an acceptable colour choice, that is easy on the eyes for lengthy reading. Natures colors never lie

Mother Nature is Never Wrong in Choosing Colours

Take a tree for example, all the browns in the bark compliment each other. Another example is a parrots feathers and their variety of bright colours, that all mesh well with each other.

Sampling Colour from Nature

The best way to sample colours from nature would be to take a good quality photograph of nature and use the eye dropper tool in one of your graphics programs, Adobe Photoshop is a great program for this. If you don't have a camera or are stuck in the concrete jungle of society away from any nature. Then simply grab an image off the web. It's not like you need the royalties to the photo. You only want to sample the colours of the photo not the actual image.

Moods of Different Colours

A single colour will give off a different mood, depending on the individual and/or their culture. To some red will give a feeling of blood and warning. When others may perceive it to give the felling of love or romance. This is true for all colors so my advise is to choose a color that you feel represents your information, because there is no right or wrong color to use.

A Design Tip Using Grey

There are many tricks that you can use to force a persons eye to focus on a certain part of the page. One way that this can be achieved is to use a combination of greys and to only use colour for the section of focus. Making the focused section jump off the dull looking page.

Colour is portrayed differently by each individual user, and a color can be argued to perceive any meaning. I suggest to use the nature's colour theory mentioned above or to use a a colour wheel to find complimenting colour combinations. Other than that, feel free and experiment with different color schemes.