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Web Design Tools

Color

In the early days of the web, it was critical to make sure you used web safe colors. As the average computer is now capable of showing at least 16 thousand colors at once, the web safe palette isn't as important as it once was. However, it's still nice to have a standard color chart that the designer and client can look at on their own machines and come to an agreement on color choices. Since PC's and Macintoshes display colors differently, and even individual monitors of the same brand can vary tremendously, it is important to remember that color on the web can not be specified with any certainty.

Web 216 Color Palette - To help choose background and text colors, you can use this color chip chart. Clicking on any of the color chips will reload the page using that color for the background. The chart is listed in numerical sequence based on the hex numbers. For a more organized palette, please review my Palette GIF that shows the same 216 colors. The numbers on the GIF correspond to the numbers on the Web 216 Color Palette.

Hardware

• Apple Macintosh Computers - I've been using them since the original Mac 128. I don't plan to give them up any time soon.
• Epson Flat Bed Scanners - Flatbed scanner, with transparency adapter. Can scan up to 4"x5" transparencies including glass negatives.
• Minolta Dimage Slide Scanner - 2800 dpi slide and negative scanner.
• Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n - 14 megapixel Nikon based SLR.
• Fuji Finepix S1 Pro Digital Camera - 6 megapixel Nikon based SLR.
• Fuji Pictrography 4000II Photo Printer - Prints up to 11x17 on photo paper, using a laser to expose the image.
• Epson Stylus Photo R800 - Prints up to 8x10 and on 8" roll paper, plus prints directly on CDs.

Software

• BBEdit - Text and HTML editor, excellent search and replace functions.
• Fetch - FTP software.
• Pagespinner - HTML editor, great for the beginner or expert.
• Photoshop CS - Belongs in the toolkit of any webmaster or photographer.
• FAVICON Photoshop Plugin - Create FAVICON files using Photoshop.