Colour and the Internet

There are several reasons why colour is important for the internet. Colour fidelity is vital in terms of e-commerce of physical goods in terms of consumer satisfaction and consumer confidence. Yet colour fidelity is challenging because of the variety of display devices, colour primaries and other factors. When discussing colour fidelity we also need to distinguish between colourimetric accuracy and colour appearance accuracy. Generally, consumers are less interested in the colourimetric accuracy of displays but very interested in colour appearance; when a consumer buys a physical product online they may reasonably expect the colour appearance of the product to match the colour appearance of the item they saw online. Another important aspect of colour on the internet is to do with aesthetics and brand/production perception. The colours used on a website may, for example, affect how visually pleasing the website is and this in turn may affect other consumer expectations or perceptions.