: How to select 5 optimally visible and distinguishable colors? I have a document that uses 5 different colors for text, on a white background. blue green brown red black (or any shade of gray)

@Odierno310

If the colors are in a context, i.e. they should somehow harmonize, I would search the internet for "set of colors". This led me to this site: this site. They provide color combinations (including values for RGB) based on photographs like this


or this

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@Connie430

I wouldn't say there is a full-proof method for this. I think you may just need to adjust the Saturation and Brightness of each color so that colors that are close, like black and brown, don't appear the same. See my example below for your 5 colors.

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@Murphy569

At least for a first approximation, go for hues at 0°, 72°, 144°, 216° and 288° (hint: 72° = 360°/5), like this:



Tweak the colors to satisfaction. For example, if red and violet feel too strong for you, you could try shifting all hues by a few degrees (this seems pretty okay) or otherwise playing with luminosity and (to a lesser extent) saturation.

As Eddie A. helpfully points out, you might need a border or some shadow and a large font for this to work with text. If you are working with small type, his answer is plainly better.

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