Designing on the Web

Not everyone can and know the difference between designing for the Web and for print. There's the obvious resolution difference, when doing print work you want to design at a minimum of 150 dpi while on the web you want to optimize for faster downloads and smaller file size.

Color was an issue of the past, now a days you no longer need to follow a web safe palette unless you are creating gif files which have a max limit of 256 colors with a palette of 216 colors. 99% of monitors read millions of colors, so most likely your core audience falls within this limits so why not use the colors while optimizing file size.

But most important of it all, is what most designers overlook, the page fold. In print, the viewer sees the whole page at once, on the Web, however, the viewer is limited to their screen resolution and yet so many designers create headers that occupy the top half of the page. Folks a 90 to 100 pixel header will more than suffice and give you enough room to display a nice eye-catching graphic that showcases the title.

The bottom line is that as a designer, you must know and be aware of all aspects of the medium you are designing for and maximize the space you are given. Keep in mind the advantages and disadvantages of this medium and work towards a good compromise.