Approved Colors

The University of Arkansas Approved Colors

These colors are approved for text overlay only at the sizes and colors defined to maintain compliance with the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.

• AA designated text overlay must be 18px or greater.
• AAA designated text overlay must be 12px or greater.
• HEX (#) colors should be used when designing websites.
• CMYK colors should be used when designing for 4-color printing.
• RGB colors should be used when designing graphics for digital signage and projection. Photos and graphics should also be converted to RGB for web use.
• Photographs should be converted to CMYK for printing.
• Pantone colors are provided if needed for printing.

Print & Digital Publications

Consider red as your friend when making color choices for publications. The official colors of the University of Arkansas are cardinal and apple blossom.  Because of the requirements for printing and the need to be as specific as possible when matching colors, the Pantone® Matching System (PMS) number for cardinal red is 201.

Publications should be predominantly themed in this shade of red in order to clearly indicate that the piece is part of the University of Arkansas family of publications. Cardinal red connects our audiences to the campus and while other colors may be pretty, they may inadvertently create the impression they are associated with other institutions.

When designing for print, you must create colors using either PMS or CMYK numbers.
Do not use RGB or HEX numbers, they will not convert correctly for print purposes.