Color & Meaning


Adapted from Accessibility at Penn State Links to an external site., San Francisco State University, Links to an external site. and University of Minnesota, Color & Contrast  Links to an external site. Links to an external site.

Using Color to Convey Meaning

While color can be an effective method to communicating information, it is important to choose colors purposefully and not rely on color alone to convey meaning. For example, if using different colors for a graph, choose a combination of colors and patterns to help denote differences for the various data points. 

Never use color alone to show emphasis

Color should never be the sole means of conveying information. Color, along with bold formatting, size variations, or patterns and shapes can be used to show emphasis. This simple technique can help improve information access for people in a wide variety of situations and conditions:

  • Color blindness
  • Low vision
  • Age-related vision issues such as macular degeneration
  • Monitors with incorrect or imperfect color rendering
  • People trying to read your materials on their phone while standing in broad daylight 

Techniques for graphic emphasis

For non-text graphics, color plus shape, color plus size, color plus texture or pattern, or some other means of visually distinguishing information differences. Here’s a chart where the areas are denoted just with color.

pie graph divided by different colors.

 

 

Here’s how that chart appears to someone with red-green color blindness:

pie chart in grayscale; cannot easily differentiate data from one another

 

 

If you design this chart with color and pattern, a person who can’t see color will still be able to interpret it. Here’s the same chart, corrected with an accessible design that includes color and pattern fill:

Accessible pie chart that uses patterns and colors to display differences in data