Newspapers are constantly concerned about maintaining and attracting new readers. Over the decades, the expanded use of colour photographs, colourful infographics and full-colour cartoons has aided them in achieving that goal. But, when it comes to typography, specifically headlines, black continues to reign.
An Australian publication recently conducted a study to assess the impact of coloured headlines on their readership. Headlines were presented to individuals in a range of colours, with the hopes that they might improve both a reader's comprehension and recall. Here's what they found. Sixty one percent of the audience found brightly coloured headlines to be very appealing, quickly drawing attention to the text of the story. However, of that group, 47% found the colourful headlines hard to read and 64% said they found them to be distracting when reading the text. The study concluded that black headlines are still the most effective, darkly coloured headlines are an acceptable alternative and bright headlines should only be used occasionally. The primary aim of a newspaper is to relay information clearly and accurately. Although readers like colour, the use of coloured typography should not interfere with that objective.