6 Secrets to Using Text Colour in Web Design

Colour is a language of its own. It can grab your attention, lure you with information, change your mood and bring about a variety of emotions.

Choosing the right colour of text for your website is fundamental and is as fragile as an element in a painting. It can either create a fuller, richer harmony or turn out crude and upset the fine balance in your page.

If you’re about to create a colour scheme for your website, or just want to improve it, here are 6 tips for smart text colour choices.

1. Contrast

Let’s start with the most important aspect of choosing the colour of your text: readability.

To make sure your content can be easily seen and read, you’ll need to create a sharp contrast between the colour of the text and your website’s background.

The best thing to do is not use the same colour scheme for each. The best test is to check that you always have either a light background with dark text or vise versa. This rule also applies when putting text on images.

A note for the longer paragraphs: stick with darker text to help your reader focus.

2. Harmony

Each element you add to your website should match and compliment all other elements.

If you chose a light yellow background  for your website, you can use a darker colour for titles to make them pop. But be careful of overdramatic combinations.

3. Branding

Do you already have a logo or specific emotions you want to convey? That’s great! Let your colour choices help you.

If you have a “green” company, perhaps you want to actually use green and other colours from nature in your design. If you’re selling children’s toys, use vibrant primary colours to show exactly who you are right from the beginning.

There are no right or wrong colours, so long as the colours you choose work in service of your website’s bigger goals.

4. Web design standards

The web has already set standards for using text that can give you great insight into your choices. You may recognise these three: If you see grey text on a form it signals something to be filled in, red text indicates an error or missing data and blue underlined text is a link you can click on.

Use these standards as your guiding principles and get creative with the rest.

5. Cultural norms

Different cultures have different relationships to colours. From national colours to holiday connections, make sure to do your research on the meaning of the colours you want to use for your target audience.

For example, did you know red is the colour of good luck in China and love in the US? Each colour represents something unique depending on where you are in the world.

Use what makes sense for you and those who will be visiting  your website.

6. A last and final tip

No text is too small to pay attention to. Just as you think about your header, pay equal attention to your buttons and footer. It all goes a long way in showing what your website is all about.

SOURCE: Wix