Color 101: Best colors on a blog

I love bright colors!   I also love black & white.    Alas, a blog is different than picking out what to wear, so I wanted to share with you what I have learned about color choices and design for your blog.  Welcome to Color 101: Best colors for a blog

You probably read the post last week about designing your blog to make it easier to read.  This week we are diving into color choice.

You already saw that you should have a white background with black text, in order to make it easier to read.

Think of your blog as your home- the colors carry throughout every room (every page/post).  The rules of design for your home: You choose two main colors and one accent color.  In our house, it is blues and a sandy beach color as the main colors, with a few bursts of black or dark brown throughout, to “hold down” the color.   I am a nautical girl at heart!

So- about your blog:

Lets start with the header:
A header should have 1-2 colors (I’m not counting black & white here).
Remember that this is only if it works for you.  This is simply what is EASIEST to look at and most interesting to readers (to keep readers coming back again), when surveyors asked readers.    I am not saying it is the best way.  The best way is YOUR way.  🙂 

Your Blog: 
Your blog should try to basically stick with those two colors.   Lets call them Color A and Color B. 
Color A will be used in your headlines, titles (important things)
Color B will be used for other things (date, comments, “next” and “older” buttons)

Advertising: 
You want your advertising to stand out, so you want a color that POPS!  Pick something bright like orange or yellow.   Even a bright pink or blue, if it stands out among the other colors on your blog.

If you aren’t sure which colors work together, try testing them out on a site, like DesignSeeds.  (PS- those beautiful images with the different colors were found on Design Seeds.)

Another tip:  If I find a color that I love, but can’t seem to re-create it, I will copy the image, upload it into PicMonkey and then add text over the photo.  I will then take the text and match it to the color using that little color dropper.   It brings up the color code for me and there you go…
Here is what I mean: (I am editing a screenshot to try to find out the color of her shirt)

You can also go to a site like Colorzilla to find any color codes.  (it is a CSS generator, too!)

I hope that was helpful!  Your blog is exactly that… YOURS!   Make it what you want it to be!