Re: B&W or Colour

[Nora Merhar <nmerhar -at- CHARLESINDUSTRIES -dot- COM>]

Javier wrote:

> Have we forgotten that the purpose of any technical communication is
to
> communicate clearly?
>
> The screen captures need to be in color in this case because that is
> what end users will see on their computer screens. To publish them
in
> B&W would lessen the effectiveness of the documentation.

Ummm... considering that most software is in color, and most manuals
are in black and white (with screen captures in grayscale) this
argument holds no water with me. ALL end users are seeing color, but
the colors they see are not necessarily the colors I see. Users can
change their default colors so that the colors of all their software
are affected. As someone commented earlier, users may also be
colorblind. In that case, I would think that a grayscale screen
capture would be more effective than a color screen capture.

> > | The developers used colour in the interface to reinforce
> > | messages. For example, the background of a high priority
> > | alarm message would be red.  Colour is also used to show
> > | whether or not a remote device is connected to the network.

Sounds to me as though the software designers made an inefficient use
of color. Whether or not you print your manuals in color is entirely
up to you, but I think that grayscale screen caps will be just as
effective in the long run (not to mention MUCH cheaper).

Nora Merhar
nmerhar -at- charlesindustries -dot- com

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