﻿ Color Considerations

Color Considerations

As Xerox partners, we understand color.  It affects your emotion and the emotions of your clients and employees. There are three areas to consider when considering color production: 

  • First is the intent of the designer.
  • Second, consider the reception by the audience.
  • Third, consider your ability to output your vision.

The actual color on the paper is where these three areas come together. In order to understand how color on paper can bring these areas together, it helps to understand what emotions colors may invoke.

The Business Value Color

Recent neurological and psychological research has shown that the impact of color is significant and largely unconscious. Studies have shown that as much as 60% of consumers decide to purchase a new product based on its color — as opposed to quality, workmanship, or price guarantee. It is also important to take into consideration that a person will respond to and evaluate most products in less than 60 seconds. Therefore, presentation is key to the success or failure of any printed document, whether that document is for internal use or for external marketing.

The Meaning of Color

Dr. Max Luescher, a Swiss psychologist, developed a means of examining the connotations of specific colors and their relationship to different traits. Luescher says there are four "psychological primary colors."  

  1. Dark Blue: Represents a need for tranquility.
  2. Green: Persistent, obstinate, and self-centered.
  3. Orange-Red: Excitable and assertive.
  4. Yellow: Extroverted, optimistic, and joyful.

Here are a few examples of what colors represent:

Primary Colors:


Red is a very emotionally charged color. It tends to increase the respiration rate and can even raise your blood pressure. It creates excitement and can be associated with danger, war, power, strength passion, desire and love. It can even increase your appetite.


Yellow is the happy color… it is the color of sunshine. It creates a sense of cheerfulness and helps to stimulate mental activity. When yellow is very bright, it can attract attention. It can also provide a very sharp contrast to dark colors. Yellow can have the appearance of being brighter than white if over used and can be disturbing if used too much. Requires the most complex visual processing, and is recognized by humans faster than any other color. Companies with products associated with energy and technological innovation combine yellow's spontaneity and red's impulsiveness and power for their trademark.


Blue is a trusted color. It can provide a sense of tranquility and security. It tends to symbolize loyalty, wisdom, trust, faith, confidence, and intelligence. While red can help to increase the appetite, blue tends to have the opposite affect and can actually suppress the appetite.

Secondary Colors:


Orange is the combination of the happiness of yellow and the energy and strength of red. It symbolizes creativity, determination, enthusiasm and success. In addition orange indicates affordability. Because of its similarity to red, it is great to promote food.


Green tends to suggest endurance and stability. It represents harmony, growth and freshness. Green indicates safety. Obviously, it is associated with money and wealth. With the interest in “green” products, it is the only color that can promote organic foods and products effectively. Certain shades of this color are used in interior design to make people feel "tended" and secure.


Violet or purple combines the energy and strength of red with the stability of blue. It represents nobility, ambition, power and luxury. It symbolizes extravagance and wealth and is often associated with dignity, independence, wisdom and magic.


White is purity, goodness, light and innocence. It is considered perfection. White is generally positive and simple. Often it is the color of charitable organizations, low-fat foods and dairy products.


Black is elegant, powerful and formal, but can also be associated with death. In marketing, it is dignified. In certain contexts, black is very negative (blacklist, black humor, etc). It can also denote prestige.

We Can Help

Knowing how color can help your printed documents can help you to communicate more effectively. Our color multi-function systems and printers provide the best quality color reproduction so you can be sure to create the most effective presentation possible. Your clients will notice.