InDesign Chapter 3: Color Contrast
- Daniel LaGrow
Instructions
Section 3.1: Color Contrast
In any project, you want to be sure that your content is easy to see and read. Color Contrast is very important for finding out how readable your project is. The contrast refers to the difference in color between the background and the text. So if you have a black text on a white background, your color contrast would be very high. This is what you want. You can use other colors like blue, red, or brown, but you should test your color using Color Contrast Checkers. If you have a text color that gives you a 4.5:1 ratio or higher, you can use that color. To change the color of your text,
Highlight the text you want to change.
Inside the Properties Panel, go to the Appearance section and click the fill button. Choose a color or create your own.
The contrast ratio should be 4.5 : 1 or higher for text under 18 point font. In this example the color contrast ratio is 1.26 : 1.
The color contrast ratio in this example, is 21 : 1.
One other thing to keep in mind is to not use color as the only way to convey meaning. This means that if you want to make text stand out, you should not just change the color. You can change the color, but you should also underline it, or bolden the text. This way screen readers will be able to emphasize the words importance to the reader.