Ok so I've been awol for a while. Hope you all across the pond had a great 4th of July.

I've been dabbling with my site's look and can't decide what colour to have my background.

I've narrowed it down to 2 options: blue or purple.

The problem is I'm extremely biased towards the purple one, as purple is my favourite colour.

The blue one does have its pros but I want something that will be friendly on the eye for the majority.

With this in mind, I'd be appreciative of any feedback.

Please visit my site (link under sig): the purple is the homepage and the blue is the contact page.

This is not a shameless plug, I really am stuck on which colour to choose.

Mods: please feel free to move this post if it's in the wrong section.

Thanks in advance guys.

Purple happens to be one of my favorite colors...but not online. You don't necessarily have to go with blue.

Look at Suzanne Ryan's site. She doesn't use traditional colors but her site is very appealing:

thegourmetcopywriter dot com

She uses a more subtle shade of purple, and it works.

Hi Sarah,

Personally I find backgrounds like that distracting - and on a larger monitor with a higher resolution, a repeating background can really overwhelm a site. If you're used to surfing at 1024x768 resolution, try something a bit higher to see how it looks. 1280 x 1024 currently has about 30% of the market so you need to see things through their eyes too.

Given a choice though - I think the colors are both subtle enough that either one could work, but I think blue would be more suitable for a business site, unless you were catering to a female market.

Have you looked into any color psychology sites lately?

All the best with the site!

Steve

Thanks Steve and Deb,

It had crossed my mind that the purple may be more 'attractive' to the female market, not the road I wanna take.

And I surf in high res anyway. With that in mind I tried to make sure that the colours aren't too garish: nice and subtle in high res so even more subtle in med or low res.

Think I'll go with the blue, at least for now.

Thanks again for your help guys.

Two things I do to look for good colour schemes is to:

1. Browse Technorati and look for nice themed blogs to 'get' ideas

2. Use online 'colour macthing' sites that can really show you some web safe colours that you would never in a million years have thought of using with your main colour. (Make sure to spell colour 'color' when you search Google for 'color matching'

Happy to help Sarah!

Oh, and if you're looking for some good complimentary color combination ideas, check out kuler , ColorSchemer - Online Color Scheme Generator and Color Combinations | Color Schemes | Color Palettes

Cheers,

Steve

In my opinion the purple is a little overwhelming. I really don't care for it in the links.

It would not send me packing, but it is not inviting either.

Let's see...

I recently heard an internet marketing guru say that the best converting background color is blue. (He also said the best converting colors for a header graphic were gold text on a blue background).

Of course, that was for a sales page... so those rules may not apply to you. (Not to mention the fact that colors should be tested anyway).

If it were me, I'd go with the blue.

But... if you're really in love with the purple, then I'd say use it. In my experience, it's difficult to stick with an online business unless you really love your website and love what you're doing. So, if the purple really helps you to enjoy your work, then I'd say go with it.

http://www.designdashboard.com/top10.pdf
(around page 11)

has some information about colors.

for example:

BLUE is a color that conveys trust, loyalty and
honesty.

RED is the strongest color there is. It is
associated with danger, passion, power, energy
and excitement.

GREEN is the color that’s the easiest and most
resful on the eye to look at.

YELLOW is the brightest color there is and
as a result it’s the one that gets attention the
easiest.

etc...

Marlon discuses the effect of colors on your mood

I'm not a big background image fan unless the lightness is extremely high so it's barely noticeable.

One test I do is print it with 1/2" and 1" margins, with and without background colors and images (it's usually a page setup checkbox). You'll see any width and color problems right away.

Cheers.