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by Martin Fowler.
Original Post: Bliki: RuleOfTincture
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Feed Description: A cross between a blog and wiki of my partly-formed ideas on software development
PowerPoint wasn't invented in the Middle-Ages, when knights
rushed around battlefields in full armor. But the slide decks of
today share a common characteristic with those knights of old. Both
need to be able to clearly distinguish symbols from a distance. We
may not have mud and dust, but many projectors aren't all that great
at contrast.
To help medieval knights tell friend from foe, they emblazoned
their symbols on themselves, but these symbols needed to be
clear. As a result when you're creating heraldric arms, you need to
follow the Rule of Tincture - and it's a handy rule for your
PowerPoint too.
The colors you use in heraldry are divided into two classes:
metals and colors. In the basic heraldric system there are two
metals: white (silver) and yellow (gold). Everything else is a
color. The rule of tincture says that you cannot put a metal on a
metal, or a color on a color. Applying that now, it means that if
you have a blue (color) square, any text you put on it should be a
metal (white or yellow).
As I've stated it above, the rule is simplified for heraldry, let
alone slides. But I've found it a useful guideline to keep my slides
easy to read.
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