But before you get carried away with the 256 million colors available with most page layout programs, here are some tips to ensure the colors you choose enhance your communication message - instead of obscuring it. A common device that's used to organize colors is a color wheel. Usually divided into 10 segments, the wheel displays colors according to their sequence in the spectrum. Each of the segments represents a family of colors - hundreds or thousands of slight variations that nonetheless share common ancestry. There are four common color schemes you can use to coordinate your color selection.
Monochromatic schemes use hues that lie within one segment - sort of a subtle variation on a theme.
The result is a harmonious range of brighter or duller tomes in the same color. Easy, effective and elegant. Analogous schemes include colors that are separated by one segment on the color wheel. These usually go together as well as monochromatics, especially when one color is dominant. Contrasting schemes are colors separated by three segments.