Using Safe Colors

The computer monitor you are looking at as you read this article is designed to display the full range of 256 RGB color values (0–255). By contrast, television can display only a limited range of color values. There’s a good chance that some colors you are using in your Flash movie fall outside the television value range, resulting in very noticeable color bleeding.

Open the Color Mixer tab in the Color panel and select pure white in the fill color swatch. The RGB values will update to reflect the values 255-255-255, where R = 255, G = 255, and B = 255 (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Selecting pure white in the fill color swatch

Now select black in the color swatch and watch the RGB values update to show 0-0-0 (see Figure 5). This represents the full 256-color range of the RGB color value that is legal for computers to display.

Figure 5. Selecting black in the fill color swatch

For television, however, you must limit this range to between 16 and 235 colors. This means that the color value of black should be 16-16-16 and the color value of white should be 235-235-235 (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Selecting the black (left) and white (right) color gamut for television

The color red is one of the more usual suspects because it has a tendency to bleed more than any other color. To mix a television-safe value for red, open the Color Mixer tab in the Color panel and select the brightest red by clicking the fill color swatch and selecting the red color swatch on the far left side (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Selecting the brightest red

Notice how the RGB color values are 255-0-0, which is far from the legal color gamut that television can display. Edit this color value by highlighting the R value of 255 and entering 235. Highlight the G value and enter 16 and do the same for the B value. You now have an NTSC-safe red color swatch with an RGB value of 235-16-16. Use the Type pop-up menu to add this swatch to your palette (see Figure 8).

Figure 8. Adding a color swatch to your palette

If you apply this simple formula each time you mix colors in Flash, you will remain well inside the television color value range. The blue used for the pupils of my boy character, for example, are considered safe because they have an RGB value of 16-51-204 (see Figure 9).

Figure 9. Selecting a safe blue for the boy’s pupils