Guidelines
Defining color
Follow these guidelines when using color:
•Less is better when using color. Overusing color can minimize its impact.
•Be consistent with your color use to make your mes- sage meaningful and easy to understand. For exam- ple, use the same color in a document to highlight similar concepts.
•Use the brightest color to draw attention to the most important point.
•When adding color to a business document, use the color for meaning and clarification, not decoration.
•Avoid colors that may offend or confuse your audi- ence.
•In a pie chart, fill each slice with a solid color. Draw attention to the most important slice with the brightest color.
•When using color on transparencies, use vivid, satu- rated colors. Use high contrast colors to attract attention to major points.
•Select colors that look good together and reinforce your message.
•Avoid red and green combinations. These colors are hard for people with red/green color blindness to distinguish.
For more information about color, refer to the numerous books available in the marketplace and to the documenta- tion that is included with your software application.
Because perception of color is subjective, no two people see color in exactly the same way. In the desktop printing environment, how we perceive color also depends on whether we are looking at color on a computer screen or printed on paper.
Knowing how color is produced gives you a clearer understanding of color and how it works with your color printer. For example, light coming from a computer screen
58 Chapter 3: Using color