Colors can be very fun to play with. However, there are important things to remember when experimenting with them: Every monitor will display colors a little bit differently. Pages look different in 256-color mode than in 16-bit or 32-bit color mode. Colors which look distinct from one another on some browsers and/or operating systems may not appear the same on others. I try to go with relatively high-contrast color combinations. I.e., if I've got a black background, I make sure all my text is relatively light. I try not to use many neutral or gray-colored backgrounds because there isn't as much opportunity for high contrast. It's best to look at your pages on several different machines to see how the colors work for them. It's also important to remember that we all perceive colors slightly differently from one another. To me, the point of using color on web pages is to make them stand out, so if a color looks flat against the background, it doesn't necessarily do a lot of good. A lot of pages these days are leaning towards very light backgrounds with dark text, sometimes even using simple black text and white backgrounds. For text-oriented pages, this is generally effective. I like to use some sort of subtle background color, such as in here or here. Another technique which I personally like is to make the visited link colors closer to the default text color than to the non-visited link colors. That way, the links people haven't yet seen tend to stand out more than the places they've already been. Also, some colors simply don't work at all as backgrounds. Here is one background color which, personally, I feel should be avoided at all costs (and I have seen this on pages before). Repeat the matra: "bright green is not my friend... bright green is not my friend..."
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