Colourful building blocks

In the midst of hacking my first Joomla! web site, I’d like to share a handy tip:

Use background colours on elements to understand the CSS layout.

For example: div#header { background-color:yellow; }

After being metaphorically smacked in the face by primary colours too many times, I started using softer, paler colours:

khaki yellow greenyellow yellowgreen navajowhite palegoldenrod

There’s a full list over at W3 Schools.

On a related note, Net Batchelder has created a whole list of “Hex color words”, my favourites being #f1eece and #efface. And did you know that Jeffrey Archer’s prison number #FF8282 is a lovely shade of salmon pink?