[thelist] browser safte and developement

[Phil]

At 05:07 PM 7/26/2001 -0500, "Kevin" <krr at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
 Subject: [thelist] browser safte and developement

While developing is it a good idea to have your computers setting
configured for a browser safe palette '8 bit' so that you can see how
badly your site will be scrambled if the user is not viewing it using 16bit?

Any feed back or experiences would be appreciated!

Kevin

Using the 256 color palette used to be a big issue, and may still be if
your client expects a lot of traffic from users of crippled software and
platforms.

Basically only WebTV is permanently crippled in this regard, all other
browsers and platforms have upgrades that eliminate it. The only 
exception to this rule appears to be when you make a .gif file, which
has permanent 255 color restrictions built in to it. Many web appliance
sorts of devices also suffer this sort of color disability.

Anybody who uses a crippled computer is well aware of it's lousy
graphic abilities, and doubtlessly "chooses" to put up with them.

It is simply impossible to make photo-realistic or accurate gradient
graphics within such a limited color gamut. While it was a big deal in
the olden days, this is an obsolete issue.

If you take a clean .jpg and squish it down to 256 colors for this reason
it will end up looking like a weather map (isobaric distortion) to 95% of
the rest of us!

Phil Stark
webdisplays