Since June 1st, 1992, the "Science and Technology Daily" first used the Founder system to publish color newspapers. Color printing technology has become increasingly popular. Color printing has become one of the signs of newspaper modernization. Printed newspapers are more popular among readers because of their rich colors and rich expressiveness. A survey of Beijing readers conducted by the Institute of Public Opinion of Renmin University of China in 1999 found that 61% of readers expressed their willingness to spend more money on newspapers with better printing quality and more pleasing style, and readers' judgment is whether color printing or not. One of the important factors of printing quality.
The popularity of color printing on the one hand illustrates the rapid development of newspaper printing technology, on the other hand also reflects the great appeal of color to readers. Color is the most direct, fastest, and most sensitive factor in many elements of the layout. It often gives people a deep first impression before text and graphics.
There are two types of achromatic color systems and color systems. Achromatic color refers to black, white, and gray series, and color refers to all colors included in the visible spectrum. There are three main attributes of the colors of the color system: hue (color appearance), lightness (lightness, lightness and darkness), purity (ie, saturation, vividness of color), and the achromatic system has no theory of hue and purity. Brightness changes.
Color printing makes news no longer the traditional black and white characters. Compared with the traditional newspapers printed in black and white, the colorful expression of color newspapers is more abundant, enabling people to more specifically see the true face of the news. For example, color photos more faithfully restore the original appearance of the colorful world, and colors make the news better. Spread. However, in the use of color, domestic newspapers show a tendency to arbitrary, over-emphasizing the richness of colors and the intensity of stimuli. As a result, there are some misunderstandings that affect the effectiveness of news dissemination.
One, layout color too
Electronic color printing technology provides us with endless colors, which makes the layout of the newspaper vivid, lively and vibrant. However, the increase in the number of colors cannot be directly proportional to the expressiveness of the news. The "Taoist Story" of France uses a black and white version plus a spot color (red), simple tones make it appear simple and unique in the flood of colored newspapers, color impact has a strong impact; is recognized as excellent Chinese newspaper representative of the "China Youth Daily" "We insist on printing in black and white. There is not much decoration in the layout. It is generous, clear, and stable." Obviously, color is not enough and it is effective.
Newspaper printing is not simply for aesthetic needs. In addition to more truly conveying news information, the purpose of color printing is to use the psychological reactions caused by color to convey the editing intent concisely and forcefully. For example, color charts make the information more clear because of the diversity of colors. Simply put, the main purpose of using color is to help readers obtain the information he needs conveniently and effectively.
Some newspapers put as many colors as possible on the layout. The same layout has a lot of hue. One title is a color, and each frame and line has a different color. The simultaneous use of multiple hues makes the layout like an overturned paint jar dazzling. This method of color application pays full attention to the richness of color, but only uses color as a decorative factor, and the frequency of use is too high. Excessive use of color has objectively peeled off the connection between the layout form and the news content, resulting in the visual effects of complex layout and confusion, and it does not help the reader to understand the news, but it may bring negative effects.
The newspapers that won awards in the 19th World's Best Newspaper Design Competition usually use colors in the headers, photographs, charts, and guides, and they usually appear in the form of small-area patches. The keywords or numbers in the headline are highlighted with a certain color, but no newspaper has yet used the full-color headline. The occasional lines on the layout are colored and their purpose is to distinguish them from the general content.
In general, the concise and clear layout is more popular with readers. The result of the overuse of color is the same as the appearance of boxes and lines in unnecessary places. It will only artificially increase the barriers to reading.
Second, the layout lacks the main color
Hue refers to the basic tendency of color appearance. It is formed by the combination of the three factors of lightness, hue, and purity of color, in which a certain factor plays a leading role and can be called a certain hue. Divided from the color brightness, there are bright tones, dark tones, and gray tones; from the purity of the colors, there are clear tones (pure colors plus white or black) and turbid tones (pure colors plus gray); from the color, the points are warm Color tone, cool tone, neutral tone; also can be divided from the hue, such as purple, light purple, dark purple and gray purple are purple tone.
The more representative color harmony theory points out that the color harmony must be dominated by one main tone, either warm tone or cold tone, form an orderly change under this unified premise, and do not treat the colors equally. Beauty.
Domestic newspapers bring about another problem in their use of color: the layout lacks the tone and no focus. The front-page cold and warm neutral tones of a newspaper appeared at the same time. The blue, green, and red tones were evenly divided into pages. "Each one's words are different," and there is no main color. The layout is therefore very important.
Reading newspapers is not only a process of obtaining information but also an aesthetic process. In this process, any uncoordinated details may cause readers to be unpleasant, and may even prevent readers from accurately receiving news. The appearance of multi-tones on the layout has destroyed the layout of the layout, and it also easily causes a sense of color incompatibility. The main tone of the layout is the emphasis of the layout. There is no level and disorderly layout will make readers at a loss. One of the purposes of the use of color in the layout is to distinguish the layers of the layout through the contrast of hue and increase the vitality of the layout. The effect of the main tone is to form a coordinated visual effect through the simple color matching and to strengthen the level of the layout.
It is worth noting that the advertisement is also an integral part of the layout, and the tone of the advertisement should also be considered in coordination with the main colors of the layout.
Color harmony should follow the principle of simplicity. American scholar Pikekhoff found that a simple combination of the same hue and the same purity is often better than a complex color scheme. After all, layout design is very different from artistic creation. The complex color effect will only increase the visual burden on readers.