Most professional print services print using the subtractive color model, CMYK. If you are designing for print, it is important that you design in the CMYK color mode. You can achieve this with color schemes using more than three colors, but keep your color schemes to less than five! Designing for print Keeping things in balance will create a cleaner design for the eye and be easier on your audience’s brain. The 10% color can either be more bold or more subtle, depending on the look you are going for. 60% is your dominant hue (this could be background color), 30% is your secondary color (this supports your dominant hue) and 10% is for your accent color.
Using your colors this way allows the eye to move comfortably from focal point to focal point.
Use the 60-30-10 ruleĪs the name states, this rule involves using your colors in a 60% + 30% + 10% proportion. Keep in mind the balance between the warm and cool colors when using a square color scheme in your design. Like tetradic colors, square colors work best when you have one dominating color with three accents. Similar to tetradic colors, the square color scheme consists of four colors evenly spaced around the color wheel (for example, blue, red, yellow-orange and green).
