ACCEPTED DOS/CONSOLE COLOR USAGE
Written by Stéphane Richard (Mystikshadows)
INTRODUCTION:
In the course of many decades, programmers have tried just about any combination of the
16 colors available in DOS. There was a point in time when each program (application or
game) that came out pretty much invented their own color combinations either to seperate
themselves from the rest of the existing programs or simply because the author thought
that his color combination was better than the the rest of them. When you create a
program, the colors you decide to use will ultimately impact what users think of your
application or game. And in the course of these decades of DOS/CONSOLE development, we
can see that a certain standard has formed. Not a standard per se, but more of a popular
and accepted set of color combinations so to speak.
In this document, we'll see what these combinations have come to be and I'll try to explain
why these colors were chosen as well as alternate colors since there are some popular alternate
color combinations that were almost as widely accepted. Please note that this is not a study
on the psychological effects of colors on the human mind but rather a study on what color
combinations became the most popular choices and why. Another quick note is to say that this
pertains more to applications than games, sure some games can follow these if you want, but
this is aimed more at application development.
WHAT COLORS ARE WE TALKING ABOUT:
Just what are these 16 colors that we are talking about? In DOS text mode applications, all you
have are those 16 colors which limits the combinations you can make to give an intelligent visual
aspect to your applications. These colors are:
| 0 - Black |
8 - Grey |
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| 1 - Blue |
9 - Light Blue |
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| 2 - Green |
10 - Light Green |
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| 3 - Cyan |
11 - Light Cyan |
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| 4 - Red |
12 - Light Red |
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| 5 - Magenta |
13 - Light Magenta |
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| 6 - Brown |
14 - Yellow |
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| 7 - White |
15 - Bright White |
And there they are, these 16 colors are the only colors you can choose from in the design of
your screens as you might imagine, some colors, when combined with other are close to unreadable
for most of us. Avoiding those obviously bad combinations is already a step in the right direction
to make sure the colors you select are clear and crisp for the eye to see.
WHAT ARE THESE POPULAR COLOR COMBINATIONS:
To answer this question I would suggest you take a look around at the widely spread application programs you can find on the internet. In essence they all have certain things in common and they can be seperated in intelligent roles. These colors combinations are usually on a per screen role basis and as I mentionned, over the years, people started to accept/expect as standard or close to it. So then, let's take a look at these different screen roles as well as what color combinations have been selected for them shall we?
- Free Style Text Editing Screens: [7 - White / 0 - Black or 1 - Blue]
Here you have your text editors, word processors and other application that would allow any type of free styled text entry. The suggested color combination above was selected because they are not to harsh on the eyes. Since chances are the user will produce fairly large files from these applications a soft combination of colors like those suggested were best due to the long amount of time that would be spent by the user in front of his computer. - Tabular Data Screens: [7 - White / 0 - Black or 1 - Blue]
Here you have your spreadsheet programs, database applications and the likes. In many database applications the user will find himself at a list of things when he or she starts the application. For the same reasons as the text editing screens, the same color combinations were accepted mainly due to the amount of time, in a day, that the user would find himself in front of that tabular data screen. - Data Entry Screens: [0 - Black / 7 - Gray]
Again in the database applications mainly. Typically, users, when they select something from a list, a screen showing all the details of the given selected record would appear allowing them to view or edit the contents of the data itself. This color combination was selected because mainly it gave good contrast with the main tabular data screen while still remaining fairly easy on the eyes. Specific fields would have a Gray or Cyan Background color to visually show the user where data entry is expected on the screen. The main keyword here is that Data Entry screens were screen that affected the physical data in a database file. - Database Interrogation Screens: [0 - Black / 3 - Cyan]
These screens would typically give the users a means to search for a specific information in a database. They would offer different fields where the user could enter his or her search criteria. A cyan Background was selected to help the user differentiate a screen that affected the data with a screen that did not even though the same field names would typically be used when inquiring for a search criteria. - Generated Report Screens: [0 - Black / 7 - Gray]
Accounting Software, Financial Analysis Tools, Statistical software, Mathematical software and database reporting software. When an interrogation to the database was made, or when a specific business report was asked for by the user, the results would usually be shown in this color combination because it was a good immitation of a printed report on paper. That was the main reason and it had the intended impact on the user in that they assumed that the report they were seeing would be something they could view as if it was print. - Help And Information Screens: [15 - Bright White or 14 - Yellow / 3 - Cyan or 2 - Green]
Pretty much any applications but mostly database related applications. Help and user feedback were usually in these colors as well as a Magenta background because again of the contrast with the blue or black background of the typical Main Tabular Data Screens but also because these colors seemed to give the impression that help is on the way. Note that these screens only gave somekind of information to the user and were usually mean to make the user correct his mistake or change the whole field values to the valid expected possible values. - User Assistance Screens: [15 - Bright White or 14 - Yellow / 5 - Magenta]
This particular type of screen wasn't found very often. But it did exist. Assistance screen typically instruct the user into the steps to follow and direct them through the given process. For example, this color was used in interactive tutorials that used the given environment or program to show the required steps live in front of the user. Purple known to be a color of wisdom and knowledge and I personally believe that it's the reason why it was selected for such a role. - Error Message Screens: [15 - Bright White or 14 - Yellow / 4 - Red]
Red was the chosen colors mainly based on the traffic light principal of Red means Stop. This combination stands out from any other color combinations quite easily and can definitaly catch the attention of the user very easily.
SPECIAL COLOR CONSIDERATIONS:
By considerations I mean of course care for your users here. There are color combinations that simply don't make sense at all. The most obvious is of course
having the same foreground and background color (which makes text unreadable as they cannot be seen). Another is for example, any low shade colors (left column in the color
chart above) in combination with any other low intensity colors except black, these will be very hard to read. The same goes for the high intensity colors (right column
in the color chart) in combination with any other color than 9 - Dark Gray. Again they might be easier to read in some cases but they would probably be to harsh on the eye
which would tire the eye alot quicker.
I would say that common sense is important here. We're all different as individuals but our eyes pretty much work the same as the next person. If your eyes like what they
are seeing regardless of the chosen color, maybe it's not a bad combination. If you have to look away from the screen when you are looking at a combination, well everyone else
just might feel like looking away too. So use your logic and common sense and I'm sure you'll select at least a halfway decent color scheme for your application without too
much of a problem.
IN CONCLUSION:
As a final word, I would have to say to remember that the combinations listed here are not standard, they just came to be the popular chose for the given
screen role. You could try other combinations if you want in your applications, maybe you'll like the outcome of those selection. For example a Yellow Text on a
brown background isn't all that bad to look at, it just seems that the majority of users simply did not like that combination for all types of reasons. So go ahead
and experiment with your colors. See if you can find something that doesn't look too bad to the eye, if you can read clearly, chances are so will your users.
Color is a matter of personal taste and that's the reason why alot of applications come with the option to change the colors of any and all parts of a program. If you
want to experiment with color combinations, perhaps giving the users that ability to change those colors wouldn't be a bad idea especially when you think about the color
blind people that might not see reds or greens as well as you might. You can always email me (see my signature below for my email) to give me comments and suggestions
about this or other articles and techniques I've written. I write these in the hope that they will be useful in some way to whoever reads them and that is my first goal
when selected the subject of my articles and techniques.
Stéphane Richard
srichard@adaworld.com