More Advice about Color and White Space

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Clark Harris, Gary Maricle, and Bob Birkenholz offer this advice for using color in posters:

"When mounting text, graphs, figures, or pictures, care should be taken to use contrasting colors to 'show off' the information. White paper on white background will cause a 'white out' effect and the text may be lost in the background. A good rule of thumb is to always mount light items on darker, contrasting colors and mount darker items on white or light-colored paper. Leave a border from ¼ inch to 1 inch around any artwork or text. . . . Be sure to blend colors so they do not clash."

Harris, C., Maricle, G.L., & Birkenholz, B. (1990). "Poster Presentation: The Key to Communication of Ideas." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Agricultural Education/American Vocational Association (Cincinnati, OH, December 6, 1990). ED333491