Color Online A few pointers for your websites & other e- publications Dr. Jennifer Bowie for Electronic Writing & Publishing

Color Refresher w Color: adds splash and interest to documents, while helping readers locate information Set and use a consistent color scheme for your site Use the same color for the same type of information throughout the site Use color with other devices (white space, …) Use color to communicate, not to decorate Consider readers when selecting colors Use color to unify series of documents

Using Color Online w Limit your use and number of colors to four main colors (and black counts as one) w Select colors with good contrast, especially for body type and background w Generally keep your text dark and background light w Avoid bold colors, especially on black on other bold colors to prevent vibrating text

Examples of Vibrating Text w Vibrating text! More Vibrating Text I vibrate!

Consider Color Blind Users w Approximately 5% of your users are colorblind 7-10% of male population 0.5% of the female population w Full color blindness (monochromacy): Can only see black, white & shades of gray (rare) w Partial color blindness: Cannot distinguish between some colors Red-green: Cannot differentiate between red, orange, yellow, and green (most common) Blue-yellow: Includes several variations from being less able to differentiate colors to being “green weak”

Design for Color Blind Users w A few simple design choices can lead to fairly good designs for color blind users Do not use colors as the only way you code information Use high value contrast: Think of your page sin terms of shades of gray with dark & light colors Try to avoid using red or green especially for vital information Test for color blind users

Test for Color Blind Users w Test your sites out with these tools: Vischeck ( ): The Vischeck tool: stimulates how web sites look to people with various types of color blindness Daltonize tool: a color blind image correction algorithm. Colour Contrast Chart for Colour Blindness: contrast-chart-for-colour-blindness/ contrast-chart-for-colour-blindness/

Consider International Connotations of Color w Red: West: courage and love China: happiness and good fortune (preferred for wedding gowns) US flag: blood Traffic signal color “stop” w Yellow: China: imperial color, revered US: people’s least favorite color but a happy color France: jealousy

w Green: Positive (US): growth, clean, fresh, environmental, “go” Negative (US): mold, nausea, and jealousy Historic Europe: fertility (wedding gown color in 15 th century) w Blue: Positive (US): serenity, the sky, infinity Negative (US): sadness (feeling blue) “Safe” in almost every culture (Morton) International Connotations

w Purple: Historical West: royalty, mourning France: religion, sacredness US: magic, lavishness, homosexuality Catholic Europe: death and crucifixion Middle East: prostitution Culturally “unsafe” color w Pink: East India: feminine color US: baby girls get pink, innocence, sweetness, soft, gentleness Japan: pastels are neither masculine nor feminine France: homosexuality

w Black: West: mourning, death France: the unknown, death, night, work w White: East: mourning, death West: purity (color of bridal gowns) France: monarchy, royalty Black International Connotations

Have Fun and Design Well