You can ensure adequate contrast by making sure there is sufficient
difference in color between the text and the background it is set against.
There are additional ways you can enhance text legibility. When setting
text in color, you can make it easier to read by using the following
techniques:
a) Increase the size of type set in color.
b) Even a one-point difference in type size might be enough to make
type set in color appear more crisp and legible.
c) Increase text weight.
d) Use a bolder or heavier typeface.
e) Choose a sans serif font (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Century Gothic,
Impact, Futura, etc.)
f) The same tips also apply when printing text against colored
backgrounds, i.e. increase the type size, increase the text weight or
consider using a sans serif typeface.
3) Consistency
Consistency involves utilizing the selected set of colors over and over
again.
Continuous variation of color leads to inconsistent designs which are
characterized by an unprofessional look, crowded displays and a feeling of
"patched up" work.
By utilizing the same basic set of colors over and over again, the
communication will convey aspect, tone and feel for the overall
"institutional" or "thematic" image that you wish to
carry forward.
Color identity is generally developed in-house or within your
department through the preparation of a so-called Identity Style Manual.
This document sets and defines through visual examples and references the
limited set of official color combinations allowed by the "look"
of your organization.
As this style manual is published and shared with other publishers,
designers, and editors within your organizations and as more communication
officers are forced to follow its guidelines, the more your organization
or department can create and effective and consistent institutional
identity.
Utilizing color to build institutional or thematic color identity is a
worthy effort. Consistency of color and presence of a color identity leads
viewers to perceive the content presented as more credible, reliable, and
as coming from a trusted source.
Color and emotions
Most people have very strong emotional reactions to color.
By implication, a presentation that makes extensive use of any given
color-scheme is going to draw extreme reactions from its viewers. Unless
polarizing your audience is part of your overall presentation design plan,
it's probably best to avoid heavy use of color in most
"professional" presentations.
Moderate, neutral colors may be "boring," but a provocative use
of colors in slides attracts and captures only those viewers who have
individual or learned cultural preferences or predisposition for those
specific hues. From warm background colors to heavy use of highly over
saturated hues, too many presentations sacrifice readability in the name
of drawing attention and "visual impact." Genuinely effective
use of color is a magical mixture of both art and science.
Color blinded viewers using reds and greens
About 6% to 10% of any viewing audience experiences some degree of
"color perception" problem or color blindness. The most common
is red-green deficiency, which can arise from a deficiency of either the
red or the green photo pigments. These people have difficulty
distinguishing any color that is dependent upon the red:green ratio. You
can also generally assume that they will see less contrast between colors
than you will.
Color-blindness comes in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and
severities. Most often, color blindness takes the form of an inability to
distinguish various shades of reds and greens. In other, more extreme
cases, most greens and almost all reds can appear to the viewer as shades
of gray. Reference: "Physiological Principles for the Effective Use
of Color", G. Murch, IEEE CG&A, pp. 49-54, Nov., 1984.
http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/
HyperGraph/color/coloreff.htm
By carefully designing your presentation with great care and awareness
in the use of reds and greens you are allowing even color-blind or
chromatically handicapped viewers to appreciate and enjoy to greater level
your presentation work.
Color use in slide layout
My first advice is to utilize color to visually organize your slides.
A colored bar can help in setting aside the title area from the rest,
while another colored section can support reference info or callouts. The
more color is used "functionally", that is, to draw or support
viewer scanning and comprehension of the information in a faster and more
effective way.
Secondly, I would strongly recommend to increase the use of white or
"empty" space. Such space is as important as the space filled
with information or visuals. It guides the eye, it helps the overall
layout not to be overburdening for the viewer, it calms down too crowded
displays, and gives generally a feel of professional, elegant and quality
work. I would certainly declare that liberal use of white space becomes a
necessity, for both reader comfort and effective comprehension.
Thirdly, if you lighten your light colors and darken your dark colors,
you will increase the visual accessibility of your design and the overall
contrast and readability of your key content.
Background colors
The choice of background colors is probably the most critical one in
the color design process of a presentation. The color selected inevitably
affects the gamut of colors that can be used for titles and text, and the
type of illustrations and photographs that can be used most effectively.
The background color choice sets the mood and "tone" of the
whole presentation.
Muted, neutral, pastel like, Siena colors work well in presentation
backgrounds. These include sand-like shades, light greens and browns, and
some light blue shades. Light colors such as these support high
readability, the use of black for titles and text, but have a tendency to
"lighten" the seriousness and tone of the content presented.
A rarely selected color that can be very effective for background use
is gray. Neutral gray (50% black) is a very effective background choice
and lends many options in the selection of titles and text color as well
as in the selection of visuals and photos.
In particular the darkest and lightest shades of gray work particularly
well in presentations.
There are also some colored grays as I would call them, or colors that
work well across a larger spectrum of situations and which allow the use
of either dark or light text on them.
The cross point between blue and green as well as the one between yellow
and red offer for example an interesting alternative to background colors
typically seen around conference rooms.
White is a neutral color in background use and can be safely applied to
many situations.
Black works extremely well in backgrounds and can work extraordinarily
well with settings in which the presentation room is in true darkness.
Colors in text and titles
Titles should be set in most cases in white or black depending on the
type of background chosen.
An effective alternative to black and white use is applying dark tones
of black in place of black and very light grays in place of white. This
solution can lead to more restful displays and a somewhat more pleasing
contrast ratio. Viewers will perceive the dark and very light grays to be
effective blacks and whites.
Blends and color gradations inside titles should be rigorously avoided.
Avoid colors that handicapped users may not see properly such as red
and green.
Use color in keywords for emphasis.
Avoid light colors for text as light blue, light yellow, light green
unless you need to obtain a playful, children or health-cosmetic related
feel.
Don't use color on thin typefaces - it makes them hard to read
Don't use an intense colored background with small type - this also
decreases legibility
Selecting appropriate and most effective color combinations
1) A good reference visual that you can utilize to select appropriate
color combinations is the one that you can find at:
http://www.lighthouse.org/color_contrast.htm
Choose dark colors with hues from the bottom half of the hue circle
against light colors from the top half of the circle.
Avoid contrasting light colors from the bottom half against dark colors
from the top half.
2) Another great tool you can use to try out color combinations in a
snap is Andrew Mundi's Web Color Theory. While this tool has been designed
for Web designers, it is still really helpful for many presenters, as it
allows to simply try out color combinations through a simple but very
effective interface as well as trying out colors on a dummy page layout to
see how background and text would interact and more.
http://www.mundidesign.com/webct/
webct.html
Once you go and try this free online tool make sure you access and try
out the three small interface icons you will find at the bottom right of
the working panel (the label next to them reads: "Change and reset
the color studies").
Measuring color effectiveness
Two very effective methods I have personally adopted to test and verify
the effectiveness and readability of my presentation designs are also the
methods I demonstrate in my Information Design courses and workshops:
a) Look at your slides in black and white. If the layout and basic
color scheme works well and it is highly readable under this working
conditions, then you are probably using an effective color layout and you
should feel confident that it will work in many situations and for many
users. PowerPoint offers a specific function to visualize the presentation
in black and white. On the main PowerPoint toolbar simply access the
button labeled "Grayscale Preview" on the top right side just
before the zoom box. Alternatively, access the "View" menu and
select "Black and white".
b) Sit down in front of your monitor and stand back about half a meter
(or about 1.5 feet) and squint your eyes as much as possible while
maintaining a minimum of view. Check your design and legibility in this
way and see how well it stands especially on legibility and overall color
contrast issues. If it works well under these conditions then you can be
sure that it will work very well under normal conditions.
Final recommendation
My final recommendations to communication officers and other presenters
is: If you're a business or institutional presenter who has not had any
color or design training background, you should restrain yourself from
extensive and creative use of colors. From there, grow and extend your use
of colors by following the basic principles outlined here. Though this
suggestion may be hard to take at first, I advise you to give it a good
consideration and allow yourself to develop on a gradual basis.
Luigi Canali De Rossi
MasterView Editor-in-Chief
You can read this article in the original issue of MasterView.
