Web dev and Mac question

[Converted2Truth]

I work in a computer lab where teachers lecture here at college. This one professor made the following claim in class:

"The Macintosh operating system only displays 216 colors vs. the PC which can display 256. So save your pictures as 216 to make sure that people browsing with Mac computers can see your pictures without error."

I argued with him that with computers, the number of colors must be a power of 2. (i.e., 2^8) But he showed me in some text book (written in 2001) that some computers running mac os, only show 216 colors. Is this still true? Was it ever true? Did OS9 have some jacked up crap?

It just seems to me like the Mac OS is more colorful than windows. How could it be with less colors that M$? Also, the whole power of two thing has be convinced this is bogus information. I recently switched to mac back in 2001, so i don't know much about how apple computers(and their OS's) before then. Can anyone explain this to me?

 

[NusuniAdmin]

i have used every system (mac os) since system 1.0 and I have yet to see one that says 216.

 

[homerjward]

it wont display 16.7m? then what's the point of a 24-bit monitor?

 

[FredAkbar]

Macs can certainly show thousands/millions of colors. Millions is the default. In fact, I think some monitors don't even support 256 anymore. Whoever said the 216 thing is full of crap, Macs have always had standard color support (powers of two, like Converted2Truth said).

 

[NusuniAdmin]

Macs can certainly show thousands/millions of colors. Millions is the default. In fact, I think some monitors don't even support 256 anymore. Whoever said the 216 thing is full of crap, Macs have always had standard color support (powers of two, like Converted2Truth said).

its good to know binary is still in use

 

[zim]

Not true. Drop the class and tell the "Professor" to learn to read a calendar, it is 2004 not 2001. I bet he is teaching the same class he thought back in 2001, sad, so sad. Sad to say but I bet that book was out dated the day it was printed back in 2001.

The truth:
The 216 comes from old versions of Netscape Navigator's color palette not the os.... 6x6x6, 6 red, 6 green, 6 blue.. but this was true for both PC and Mac this was not a Mac system palette.

 

[jeremy.king]

the professor of yours needs to go back to school...Heres a link so you can help him understand. http://www.lynda.com/hex.html

On the same topic: Does anyone design to the so-called web safe colors anymore anyway? Most video cards/monitors are running AT LEAST 16 bit color (65536 colors) nowadays, but I still like to stick to web safe colors. Is this just me limiting myself?

 

[Converted2Truth]

the professor of yours needs to go back to school...Heres a link so you can help him understand. http://www.lynda.com/hex.html

On the same topic: Does anyone design to the so-called web safe colors anymore anyway? Most video cards/monitors are running AT LEAST 16 bit color (65536 colors) nowadays, but I still like to stick to web safe colors. Is this just me limiting myself?

My professor is talking about 'web safe colors', when he says macs only show 216. He said there wouldn't be 'web safe colors' if they're weren't 216 color macs around.... This does sound to me like really old stuff. I don't know why this crap is in some textbooks...

 

[broken_keyboard]

His info seems out of date but at least he is encouraging people to make Mac compatible sites which is a good thing.

If it was a modern class he would talk about rendering differences between Internet Explorer and Safari. He would say "don't use this tag because it renders differently on Safari and IE"

 

[James L]

Your professor is an idiot... to put it bluntly.

The concept of the "web safe colors" does indeed include 216 colors which are found in both the Macintosh and the PC color pallettes. This was very important, in 1998!

8 bit color depth gives you 256 colors, 16 bit gives you 65000 colors, and 24 bit gives you 16 million colors! How many 8 bit computers abound nowadays?

Here is a sample example of current web trends:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Now, when I look at this, I see that in July 2004:

66% of users were displaying 16.7 million colors (24 bit)

30% of users were displaying 65000 colors (16 bit)

4% of users were displaying 256 colors (8 bit). Of these 256 colors, 216 are common to both Mac and PC.


Other interesting stats:

50% of users are now in 1024x768 res, 35% are 800x600, 10% are above 1024, and only 5% are below 800x600 now.

In July 2004 10% of users had disabled scripting... now, think of all those idiots who are using navigation systems dependent on JavaScript. 1 out of every 10 of their visitors will be unable to navigate their site!

Now, these are just sample stats from one site, but I have found them to be pretty consistent. Your prof is "teaching" you old stuff, big time. Profs stuck in the past can usually be indentified by the fact that:

1) They stress crap like this.

2) They still swear by tables for layout.

3) They put little emphasis on CSS.

4) They don't stress validation of html and CSS code.

5) They still teach fixed width designs, usually about 750 pixels wide.


Tell your "prof" to learn current standards, realize that the professional design industry on average uses Macs, and that he should realize that his comment:

"He said there wouldn't be 'web safe colors' if there weren't 216 color macs around"

...could just as easily be turned around. The 216 colors defined colors that were on BOTH platforms... so one could say that there would be 256 colors if PC's weren't around with only 216 colors.

Better yet, just print this off and give it to him, then let me know what his reply was!

Cheers bud,

James

 

[scem0]

I can't stand it when people who are qualified to teach don't know anything.

216 colors?!!? wtfage....

scem0

edit - oh and that book is also very annoying. It is spreading incorrect facts, and everything you read in a book is true, right?