Colour Rules

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Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color

Home Page > Writing and Publishing > Book Cover Design

Good colour schemes  govern the order and placement of colours in a composition.

Choose only three or four colours for your scheme. Have a background colour and two or three others for the fonts and highlights.

Balance the elements of the design. Some designers divide the cover area into thirds when considering the design layout with each area of the composition offset by other areas of the composition so that no individual area stands out as disharmonious.

Design your layout in black and white first and then add colour. This way it is easier to see the good attributes of your design.

Do not put light coloured text on a white or light background it is very hard to read on screen. such as in this example.

Black on pure white is stressful to the eyes especially in a web format. Soften the degree of contrast between the text and background to lessen visual stress.

Never place dark or medium blue text on a black background. The eye does not have as many blue receptors as other colours and cannot distinguish the boundaries of the shapes. Use colour to create the overall mood and evoke an emotional response from the viewer.

Use colour so the viewers eye is drawn to distinctive or unusual colours.

Use colour to segregate the set areas of design apart from each other.

Use colour to tie areas of design together.

Use colour to organize textual information.

Use colour as a means to draw the eyes across a page.

Writing and Publishing