Colours must differ in lightness, not only in hue. Convert your material to greyscale and check that everything still reads, since much of it will be reproduced without colour.

Where colour gets removed

More often than a business expects, and always without warning.

An invoice printed on a mono office printer. A document photocopied by a customer. A form faxed by an insurer. A newspaper advertisement. A stamp, an engraving, or embroidery on workwear, all of which are single colour by nature.

Also anything printed by somebody trying to save toner, which is a great deal of what customers do with the documents you send them.

In each case the hue disappears and only the lightness remains, and a design that depended on hue disappears with it.

Hue and lightness are different things

The distinction that explains the whole problem.

A medium red and a medium green look entirely different because their hue differs, and they can be almost identical in lightness.

Remove the colour and both become the same middling grey, so a logo using one on the other becomes a solid shape with nothing visible inside it.

Which means colours can be beautifully distinct and still fail, and the failure is invisible on the screen where they were chosen.

The remedy is to ensure your colours differ in lightness as well as hue, which costs nothing at the point of choosing and is expensive to retrofit.

The test

The third is the useful one, because a photocopy also flattens midtones and reveals problems that a clean greyscale conversion does not.

What usually fails

Predictable enough to check specifically.

A two-colour logo where both colours are mid-toned, which becomes a shape.

Text in a brand colour on a coloured background, where the contrast came from hue rather than from lightness.

Pie charts and bar charts distinguished only by colour, which is a common failure in any document a business sends out.

Coloured buttons or highlights in a printed document, which become grey boxes.

And a logo with a light element on a light background, which vanishes entirely rather than merging.

A worked example

A business chose a mid-blue and a mid-orange, which looked strong together and worked well on screen.

Their logo placed the orange element inside the blue one.

When an insurer requested documents and photocopied them, the logo arrived as a solid grey shape with no internal detail.

The same happened on the embroidered version of their workwear, which had to be a single colour and lost the distinction entirely.

They darkened the blue considerably and left the orange, which kept the appearance close on screen and made the two clearly different in lightness.

The embroidered version then worked, and the photocopy problem disappeared.

Design the one-colour version first

The sequencing that avoids all of this.

Make the logo work in solid black on white before adding any colour to it.

If it reads at that point, every subsequent version will work, because colour only adds information rather than carrying it.

That is also the version needed for embroidery, engraving, stamps, vinyl cut in one colour, and anywhere a supplier asks for a single-colour file.

Businesses that skip this end up with a logo that requires colour to be legible, which limits where it can be used and costs money at each occasion.

Ask for the one-colour version at the point the logo is made, since producing it later means redrawing.

Never let colour carry the meaning alone

The broader principle, which applies beyond print.

Anywhere a colour distinguishes one thing from another, add a second signal: a label, a pattern, a shape, or a position.

Charts get labels on the segments rather than a colour key. Status indicators get a word alongside the colour. Required form fields get a mark as well as a red outline.

That serves the greyscale case, and it also serves people who cannot distinguish the colours and people whose screens are rendering them differently.

One change, three problems solved, which is an unusually good return for the effort involved.

Check the documents you send out

The practical audit, since these are the items most likely to be printed in mono.

Print your invoice, your quote, and any leaflet on a black and white printer and read them.

Look for anything that has become illegible, indistinguishable, or a grey block where something was highlighted.

Fix those by adding lightness contrast, borders, or labels rather than by changing the brand.

Do the same for any chart or table you send customers, which is where this most often produces a document nobody can use.

Signage and vinyl have the same constraint

Worth extending, since physical production imposes it more often than printing does.

Cut vinyl, the usual method for vehicle lettering and window graphics, applies one solid colour per layer, and every additional colour adds cost and complexity.

Which means a signwriter will frequently ask for a simplified version, and a business without one gets whatever the signwriter decides.

The same applies to embroidery, where fine detail and subtle colour differences are lost in thread, and to anything etched or engraved.

Deciding your own simplified version in advance means the van, the workwear, and the window all match rather than each supplier improvising separately.

The counter-case

Colour is not disappearing.

Most material is now seen on screens in full colour, faxes are close to extinct, and mono printing is less universal than it was.

Designing entirely for the greyscale case produces a palette dominated by lightness differences, which can look heavy and limits the choices available.

Some businesses also genuinely never produce anything in one colour, and the constraint is theoretical for them.

Make the logo work in one colour, keep the palette differing in lightness as well as hue, and check anything a customer will print.

The check

  1. Convert your logo to greyscale.
  2. Photocopy it, which is harsher.
  3. Ensure colours differ in lightness.
  4. Design the one-colour version first.
  5. Label charts, never colour alone.
  6. Print your invoice and quote in mono.
  7. Get a single-colour file from your designer.

Step four removes the problem entirely rather than testing for it, and it is the step that costs nothing when a logo is being made and a redraw afterwards.

The screen version of the same principle is covered in colour contrast without a design background.

Frequently asked questions

Where does colour actually get removed?

Mono office printers, photocopies, faxes, newspaper adverts, stamps, engraving, and embroidery, plus anybody printing in black and white to save toner.

Why do two distinct colours become identical?

Because hue and lightness are different. A medium red and a medium green differ in hue and can be nearly identical in lightness, so both become the same grey.

How do I test?

Convert to greyscale in any editor, or better, photocopy it, which also flattens midtones and reveals problems a clean conversion does not.

What usually fails?

Two-colour logos where both are mid-toned, text whose contrast came from hue, charts distinguished only by colour, and light elements on light backgrounds.

What is the best prevention?

Design the logo in solid black on white first. If it reads then, every later version works, and that is also the file needed for embroidery and engraving.

What else does this fix?

Not relying on colour alone also helps people who cannot distinguish the colours and people whose screens render them differently. One change, three problems.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Two-colour logo you have never printed in mono?

Photocopy it. If the inside disappears, embroidery and faxed documents will do the same.

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