Heraldry for Beginners
Colour and How to Use It
The Tinctures
Heraldic colours, called tinctures were chosen to be clear, strong, and brilliant giving instant recognition on the field. Pastels are almost never used. Other colours are only used if a charge is rendered “proper”, that is, in its natural colours. There are three type of tinctures: metals, colours, furs. Each has its own heraldic name.
The metals are gold/yellow (or) and silver/white (argent).
Metals |
| Gold (Or) |
Silver (Argent) |
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The colours are black (sable), red (gules), blue (azure), green (vert), purple (purpure), orange (tenné), blood red (sanguine), and mulberry (murrey). The last three colours are sometimes referred to a “stains” and are seldom encountered in English heraldry.
Colours |
Black (Sable) |
Blue (Azure) |
Purple (Purpure) |
Blood red (Sanguine) |
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Red (Gules) |
Green (Vert) |
Orange (Tenné) |
Murrey (Mulberry) |
Generally furs are only used for royalty (mostly in France), so I won’t provide any swatches. However, here are a few
examples of furs.
Furs |
Ermine |
Ermines |
Vair |
Potent |
White with black spots |
Black with white spots |
Rows of small shield-shapes alternating two tinctures |
Rows of small “T”-shapes alternating two tinctures |
Some Rules and Guidelines
As noted previously, all tinctures should be clear and bold. Avoid pastel shades.
Any instance of the same tincture in the same rendering should be exactly the same shade. For example, don’t use #ff0000 for gules in one part of the arms and #ff3333 in another part. Or, dropping the computer neepery, don’t use scarlet in one part and crimson in another.
Generally speaking, the tinctures should be laid down in flat patches of colour with little or no shading. Arms were never intended to have trompe-l’oeil three-dimensional effects. (Note that large, flat areas of colour compress better than areas with a lot of shading. Also note that a single large area of one colour only requires a single index location in a palette, whereas shading takes up large segments of the palette. For the smallest possible images with the smallest possible colour-depth, flat colours are best.)
Proper heraldic design requires that a colour never lay on another colour, nor a metal on a metal, nor a fur on a fur. (This seems to be a rather strict requirement for the English College of Heralds. The only example I found mentioned that broke this rule was the medieval Christian Kingdom in Jerusalem which had silver crosses on a gold field. This was justified as a special case.) Note that when a field or charge is divided, two colours or metals can be used since they are beside each other rather than on each other. You can get away with breaking this rule if you know what you are doing, but generally speaking, it provides the best clarity and contrast in the design. Whatever you do, make sure that there is some degree of contrast between the field (background) and the charges (foreground). Otherwise, the charges cannot be distinguished from the field.
Heraldry information compiled and organised by Timber Bram.
Copyright © 2001.
