Loading the Web Safe Color Palette into Photoshop
The instructions for adding the Web Color Palette are for Photoshop 4.0 and below. Photoshop 5.0
and above come with a standard WebSafe color palette already in the palettes folder. If you wish to use
one of the palettes listed below that arranges the colors differently, you'll need to follow all of
the steps below. To add in Adobe's web palette for Photoshop 5.+, please begin at Step 3.
PC Instructions
are for Windows 95 and above
What are Web
Safe Colors?
Web Safe means that the color will appear at least fairly
consistent on all computers (Macs and PCs display color
differently). Unless you're using Web Safe colors, what you're
seeing on your computer is not necessarily what the people who
visit your page will see.
For a more detailed explanation, see the Cat
'n Moose Web Safe Color FAQ.
- Download the
Web Safe Color Palette
The two links below were found at the Web Page Design for
Designers site:
For Mac: www.wpdfd.com/WebAct.sit.hqx
For PC: www.wpdfd.com/WebAct.zip
Visibone offers two versions of a palette that groups the colors
according to hue:
For Mac: www.visibone.com/swatches/VisiBone.aco.sit
www.visibone.com/swatches/VisiBone2.aco.sit
For PC: www.visibone.com/swatches/VisiBone.aco
www.visibone.com/swatches/VisiBone2.aco
- Save the
palette in its proper place
For Mac: Once you download and decompress (the decompression
should occur automatically), you will wind up with a file named
"WebPal.act", "visibone.aco" or "visibone2.aco". Place this file
in the Color Palettes folder inside your Photoshop folder (open
the Photoshop folder; open the Goodies folder; place the file in
the Color Palettes folder).
For PC: You will wind up with a file named "WebPal",
"visibone.aco" or "visibone2.aco". Place this file in the Palettes
folder inside your Photoshop folder (c:\program
files\adobe\photoshop\goodies\color palettes).
- Open Photoshop
and make sure the small Swatches window is visible
- Click
and hold on the small right facing arrowhead to the right of the
word swatches and a menu will drop down. Select "Load Swatches"
from that menu. The WebSafe palette will be added to your current
color palette. You also can select "Replace Swatches"
(recommended if you use Photoshop primarily for Web work;
remember, you can always "Reset Swatches" to the Photoshop
default).
- Using the
resulting dialogue box, locate your Photoshop palettes folder (see
Step 2 above). Select the file that contains the name WebPal to
load.
- Photoshop
5.0 and above come preloaded with a WebSafe color palette. At
this step, you need merely select Web from the list of
available palettes that appears.
- The
resulting Swatches window contains a WebSafe palette which looks
like the figure below. Remember, if you selected "Load
Swatches" in step 4, the WebSafe palette colors were added
to your existing palette and fall below the usual colors. The
palette will look like the one to the right only if you selected
"Replace Swatches."
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Please send your comments or questions to:
Tracy Corrigan, Sr. Web Designer
