Choosing Colors
The further apart a pair of colors are from each other, the greater the contrast. And contrast is good in design.In very general terms, consider these colors for specific circumstances:
- Power and energy: dark or bright red
- All-Business, stability: corporate blue
- Love and romance: red, pink, lavender
- Nature, natural, good for you, good for the earth, organic: green and brown (especially in softer shades with matte papers or recycled papers)
- Spring: pastel blues, light pink, pale yellow, light or grassy green
- Summer: light, bright citrus shades of orange, yellow (lemon), green (lime)
- Fall: orange and shades of brown and dark reds
- Winter: icy blue and white
Expand Color Options With Spot Colors
Use black plus a single spot color but use tints of that color (as well as tints of black) to make it seem like more colors without incurring added printing costs.RGB vs. CMYK
- RGB = red, green, blue light
- CMYK = cyan, magenta, yellow, black printing inks
Images on the Web and from our digital cameras are in RGB. When working with images in graphics software, keep them as RGB. When preparing digital files for commercial printing, convert images to CMYK after you've finished editing them or applying special effects. Keep an RGB version to work with if you later decide you want to make changes to the image.
Knocking out
Type "knocking out" from a process black should be larger, bolder than type knocked out of a single or spot color.Rich Black #1
For the richest blacks over a large area, use 100% black plus 60% cyan.Rich Black #2
For the richest blacks over a large area, use 100% black plus 25% magenta.Also see Simple Guidelines That Work Most of the Time on software, newsletters, business, and more.
