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Alive with Color

Early in Wired’s online history, changing the color scheme every day was part of its appeal. Of course, this had to be achieved in a much more rudimentary way back then. With CSS, simply pointing to a different style sheet can change the scheme.

There are five preset color schemes available to use on a daily basis, as well as a sixth for weekend use. In addition, there is a base grayscale scheme, and two additional schemes for specialty use, such as holidays or special news events.

Here’s a tour through Bowman’s color work, with his original palettes and a working sample of each. The palettes show the RGB values of the individual colors for each style in use.

Note 

 The base scheme is not used within the design itself; rather, it’s used as a default base should the color style somehow not be applied.

Grayscale base The grayscale base scheme is what the site colors will default to if no other style sheet is called. Figure 9.7 shows the palette, and Figure 9.8 shows the palette in use.

Figure 9.7: Grayscale palette

Figure 9.8: Viewing the grayscale sample

Monday scheme The Monday scheme uses blue, turquoise, black, and white as its main colors (see Figure 9.9). Figure 9.10 shows the Monday scheme in use.

Figure 9.9: Monday color palette

Figure 9.10: Monday color schemes

Tuesday Scheme Tuesday’s scheme (see Figure 9.11) uses orange and hot pink. Figure 9.12 shows the results.

Figure 9.11: Tuesday color palette

Figure 9.12: Tuesday color scheme

Wednesday Scheme Wired News’ Wednesday scheme is a combination of bright and darker green (see Figure 9.13). Figure 9.14 demonstrates the complete look.

Figure 9.13: Wednesday color palette

Figure 9.14: Wednesday color scheme

Thursday Scheme Orange and red color up Thursdays at Wired News. Figure 9.15 shows the palette, Figure 9.16 the results.

Figure 9.15: Thursday color palette

Figure 9.16: Thursday color scheme

Friday Scheme Blue and bright green are the TGIF colors at Wired News. Figure 9.17 shows the palette, Figure 9.18 the results.

Figure 9.17: Friday color palette

Figure 9.18: Friday color scheme

Weekend Scheme Turquoise and orange are the colors of a Wired News weekend. The palette can be seen in Figure 9.19, and the full template in Figure 9.20.

Figure 9.19: Weekend color palette

Figure 9.20: Weekend color scheme

Additional Schemes Two additional schemes for special purposes are available. Figure 9.21 shows the palette for the first of these, and Figure 9.22 shows the results.

Figure 9.21: Alternate color palette #1

Figure 9.22: Alternate scheme #1:

The second additional scheme can be seen via the palette (see Figure 9.23) and the template with the scheme added (see Figure 9.24).

Figure 9.23: Alternate color palette #2

Figure 9.24: Alternate scheme #2