Safe web colours

Palette files

A simple comparison

A look at the Windows 16 colour palette gives a clear idea of which colours are likely to cause confusion. The top row is the normal palette, the second row simulates the appearance to protanopes, and the third row to deuteranopes. The next three rows are the same colours as seen against a grey background.

This is a side-by-side comparison of how the 256-colour palette files look, as viewed in a PaintShop Pro (PSP) colour palette window, in hue order. (The colour order in the supplied palettes will be different).

Standard websafe palette	Protan palette	Deutan palette

Using the palettes [ see also Download the files or back to top ]

First open an image to work on within your editor. Then follow these steps:

Paintshop Pro

Photoshop

Select Colors - Load Palette. Find the websafe palette file and "Apply using nearest color matching" or "Error diffusion dithering" and click OK.
Make two copies of the image.
For each image, select Colors - Load palette... and "Maintain indexes". Select the protan or deutan palette, and click Open.

Select Image - Mode > Indexed color... In the next dialogue, choose Palette - Custom... and Dither - Diffusion, and click OK. In the Color Table dialogue which follows, click Load... and find the websafe palette.
Select Image - Mode > RGB Color, then make two copies of the image.
For each image, select Image - Mode > Indexed Color... then Palette - Custom and Dither - None and click OK. In the Color Table dialogue, click Load... and select either the protan or deutan palette, and click Open.

See Transformed images for an example.

Download the files [ see also Using the palettes or back to top ]

The zip files below contain:
      the standard palette of web-safe colours, WebSafe.*
      the protan palette, Protan.*, simulating Protanopia
      the deutan palette, Deutan.*, simulating Deuteranopia

The available sets are:
      JASC palette files (2.93KB) for Paintshop Pro or text editors
      MS format palette files (2.22KB) for Paintshop Pro or Photoshop
      Adobe format colour tables (1.88KB) for Photoshop

An additional set of palettes (in MS format, 2.28KB) is available for those primarily checking for colour in Windows software. They include the eight extra colours which are not in the standard web palette. The method is the same, but this set should not be used for web images.