Consistency is a fundamental principle in building a strong brand identity, and one of the key aspects of maintaining consistency is using the same colours across all brand elements.

Colours play a crucial role in shaping perceptions and emotions, making them an indispensable tool for brand recognition and establishing trust with your audience. Whether it’s a logo, website, marketing materials, or physical products, maintaining a consistent colour palette can significantly impact how your brand is perceived and remembered.

The process of finding the colour reference (RGB, CMYK, Pantone, and HEX) of a colour in various software applications may differ slightly, but here are general guidelines for finding them in Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Canva and Affinity Photo.

Adobe Photoshop

1. Open the image or create a new document in Photoshop.
2. Select the ‘Eyedropper Tool’ from the toolbar.
3. Click on the colour you want to sample in your image. This will pick up the colour.
4. Look at the ‘Colour’ panel (Window > Colour) or the ‘Info’ panel (Window > Info) to find the RGB and HEX values of the colour.

After August 16, 2022, Pantone Colour books, will be phased out of Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop in software updates. If you use Photoshop and rely on Pantone colours, you will need the Pantone Connect Plugin and a licence.

Microsoft Word

1. In Microsoft Word, you can set the RGB or HEX colour values directly when editing the font or shape colours.
2. Select the text or shape whose colour you want to change.
3. Go to the ‘Font’ or ‘Shape Format’ tab on the Ribbon.
4. Click on the ‘Text Colour’ or ‘Shape Fill’ button to open the colour palette.
5. Click on ‘More Colours’ to access the extended colour options.
6. Choose the ‘Custom’ tab to enter RGB values or view HEX values.

Canva

1. In Canva, while working on a design, select the element (text, shape, etc.) whose colour you want to find the reference for.
2. On the top toolbar, you’ll see the colour options with the current colour displayed.
3. Click on the colour box to open the colour picker.
4. You’ll see the HEX value displayed next to the colour picker.

Affinity Photo

1. Open your image or create a new document in Affinity Photo.
2. Choose the ‘Colour Picker Tool’ from the toolbar.
3. Click on the colour you want to sample in your image. This will pick up the colour.
4. The RGB and HEX values will be displayed in the context toolbar at the top of the screen.

Other Information

For CMYK and Pantone values, you can use external colour conversion tools or reference Pantone colour books to match the colours manually. Keep in mind that colour conversion between RGB and CMYK, in particular, may not always be perfect due to differences in colour gamuts and printing processes.