How to Select Alternate Font Colors

Alternate font colors are additional colors that are available for customers to select while customizing the fonts in their chosen design. These additional options provide a greater degree of customization for the customer while still working well with the design. 

Customers have told us they prefer alternate font colors that fall under these three options:

• Contrasting/complementary: Colors from opposing segments of the color wheel (e.g. red and green). These colors stand out against each other because of their differences.
• Analogous/harmonious: These colors work well together because they’re close together on the color wheel (e.g. blue and purple), which creates a harmonious palette. 
• Neutral: Colors like black, white, and gray are always welcomed by customers who might want to select a more toned-down color for their card’s font.

Three examples of alternate font colors in different color options that each pair well with Julie Hebert’s Birds of Paradise design.

Below are some tips and tricks from Minted’s merchandising operations team that will help you select the best possible alternate font colors for your design! 

• Legibility is paramount: It’s important to pick colors that are readable against your design elements and background.
  
  • When in doubt, you can always try test printing! Looking at how the colors print on paper will help you determine how legible they are to the eye.
• CMYK values: Minted’s print standards require that CMYK color builds must have a minimum value of 20% and a maximum of 255% (updated August 2024).
  • Color builds that are below 20% on fonts get lost when printed on textured paper, especially fonts with thin areas of text. Printers cannot guarantee legibility for colors below this value.
  • Color builds that are over 255% risk ink coverage that’s too heavy, which can smear the ink when printed.
• Black values: Prioritizing the black in your CMYK color build helps create a more stable color with greater clarity at print. 
  • Our printers have shared that CMYK builds print best when black (K) has the highest percentage. 
  • Having some black value in your color helps it be more stable when printing! This helps make your design less likely to potentially print too lightly. For a light color, you can use a minimum of 2% black.