Color is perhaps the most critical element in your webpage. You can have a terrific layout, but color can make or break a webpage. The four basic design principles: Alignment, proximity, repetition and contrast do not really deal with the concept of color. Since webpages are a visual medium, color confronts the viewer before content. Below is a the 216 color safe palette. These are the colors you should use when you are creating your web page. This includes your graphics as well.

Looking at the swatch above it can be confusing in selecting a color combination. Below is a selection of colors that are divided up into shade, base and hi-lite. These combinations will work well on any webpage. You can use the base color for your background and the shade and highlight colors for you text, links and visited links. When in doubt use a white or beige background.

Shade	Base	Hi-lite
000066	666699	ccccff
660066	996699	ffccff
660000	996666	ffcccc
666600	999966	ffffcc
006600	669966	ccffcc
006666	669999	ccffff
333333	666666	cccccc
663300	996633	ffcc99
996600	cc9933	ffcc66
336666	669999	99cccc