Eight Browser-Safe Greys
An attempt to see which of the 32 Netscape greys are clearly distinguishable when the computer display is set to 256 Colors.
Greys to be avoided are marked in (parentheses). Equivalent hexadecimal values are shown underneath. The 32% and 29% greys turned cobalt blue on the Linux portable computer my spouse had at the time!
100%
FFFFFF |
(97%)
F7F7F7 |
(94%)
F0F0F0 |
(91%)
E8E8E8 |
(87%)
DEDEDE |
(84%)
D6D6D6 |
80%
CCCCCC |
(78%)
C7C7C7
|
74%
BDBDBD |
(71%)
B5B5B5 |
(68%)
ADADAD |
(64%)
A3A3A3 |
60%
999999 |
(58%)
949494 |
(55%)
8C8C8C |
52%
858585
|
(48%)
7A7A7A |
(45%)
737373 |
(42%)
6B6B6B |
40%
666666 |
(36%)
5C5C5C |
(32%)
515151 |
(29%)
4A4A4A |
(26%)
424242
|
(22%)
383838 |
20%
333333 |
(16%)
282828 |
(13%)
212121 |
(9%)
171717 |
(6%)
0F0F0F |
(3%)
070707 |
0%
000000
|
|
The greys I settled upon are based on a combination of measurement, what I could distinguish readily, and feedback from a viewer of this page. If it weren’t for Netscape for Windows, there would have been 11 browser-safe greys and this would have been a useful, rather than mildly interesting, exercise.
Below are 8 Netscape greys that are web-browser safe, 2 more than the 6 listed in the 216 web-browser safe colors. Equivalent hexadecimal values are shown underneath.
100%
FFFFFF |
80%
CCCCCC |
74%
BDBDBD |
60%
999999 |
52%
858585 |
40%
666666 |
20%
333333 |
0%
000000
|
|
For reference, here are the official 6 web-browser-safe greys.
100%
FFFFFF |
80%
CCCCCC |
60%
999999 |
40%
666666 |
20%
333333 |
0%
000000
|
|