"Reaction [beta]"
A low wattage colour palette for the web 19 Apr 2007
ecoIron has created a low wattage eco-friendly colour palette for web designers. The palette is based on the Energy Star wattage ratings for colours and uses only 3-4 watts more than a completely black screen.
The hex codes are as follows:
- #822007 (rusty red)
- #000000 (black)
- #b2bbc0 (blue grey)
- #19472a (forest green)
- #3d414c (cobalt)
- #ffffff (white - for accentuation only)
(Note: You may also want to check out ecoIron's "Black Google" post, where author Mark Ontkush estimates that Google could induce global energy savings of around 750 megawatt-hours a year by switching its homepage design from white to black!)
Next article: "Remove the web developer and the web gets developed"
Previous article: It's better to be clear than clever
Bookmark this page
Trackbacks
To create a TrackBack to this entry simply append ping/ to the permalink URL for this page.
2 comments so far
Paul D 20 Apr 2007 10:33 AM
That makes no sense to me. Practically all displays are LCDs these days, and the backlight, responsible for most of the display's energy use, is always on whether the screen is white or black.
In fact, black probably requires slightly more energy, since all the LCD pixels are turned on to block the backlight.
Simon 23 Apr 2007 12:39 PM
Paul: Thanks for your comment. The low wattage palette is certainly less effective when viewed in LCD monitors, but still saves some energy.
One of Ontkush's readers plugged in his watt-meter and compared the energy generated from a black screen vs. a white screen when viewed on both a CRT and LCD monitor. Here are his findings:
CRT:
Black Screen: 77W
White Screen: 90W
Energy Savings: 14%
LCD:
Black Screen: 33W
White Screen: 36W
8% energy savings
...So there will likely be some energy savings for users viewing the low wattage colour palette via an LCD monitor...but nothing spectacular.