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Subject:Re: thoughts on color From:Lorraine Franz <Lhfranz -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 29 Dec 1998 21:25:08 EST
Hi!
What an interesting thread!
I like the idea of color to add emotional impact to documents. My own
feeling, however, is that if you're dealing with printed material that isn't
designed for marketing, it's probably not worth the money. Marketing
materials are supposed to be jazzier, and may warrant the extra cost of
printing and reproducing color. Online documentation, I think, begs for
color. Maybe it's because a computer monitor looks like a TV, and seems kind
of bare without color. But color is very easy online, and doesn't add to the
cost in the same way as color on paper.
One more small point: If differences in color play an important part in
understanding the document, it's safest to make sure that the different colors
in the documentation are based in different primary colors. People who have
color deficiencies (formerly called color blindness) won't always see the
difference if the colors are too close on the color-wheel. The only reason
I'm aware of this is that some members of my own family have this problem.
They have trouble with the red area of the spectrum, and so cannot always
distinguish green from brown (the red in the brown doesn't always register),
or blue from purple (the red in the purple doesn't always register). It
depends on the particular shade.
