When color-blind operators may use the control interface, the distinction from the nearer pilot light can be difficult to see leading to errors.In the very rare case where the 2 colors are used together, a control interface could indicate different levels of importance for the alarms.Another reason is the geographical preferences, Asian operators being more used to the yellow for alarming compared to European and American operators who often prefer the orange.įinally having two colors is enabling two differentiation: Why do we have 2 colors in that scope ? Part of the answer is technical limitations on the plastic & light pigmentations inherited from older technologies. The most useful standard for color definition is, in my opinion, the ISO 3864-4, which describe acceptance areas of colors for signaling lights.Īs you can see, the “Amber” color is actually quite interesting as it is covering two usual colors, the yellow and the orange. However, through the meaning of colors is explained, the actual definition is not given in this standard. In case the choice of color is not obvious, white & grey are the favorite recommendation. A simplified approach of this guideline would be : The first interesting one is the IEC 60204-1 which provides guidelines for colors in both pushbuttons and pilot lights these guidelines are presented as advices and the standard is actually mentioning that the manufacturer and the users can agree on different color choices. So, I’ve taken my best speleologist and went digging up into the color meanings for pushbuttons.Īs often for industrial products, I found a couple of standards that are defining the colors and their individual meaning. But actually, past the “emergency stop is a red mushroom button on a yellow background” and the most common “blue reset button” and “green start button”, I had not thought about the color choice for a long time. Vibrant colors are definitely one way to give a modern look and feel to a control interface, but surely, we engineers are not only choosing the blue button because that’s the nicest color on the shelf. ![]() It made me think a bit about the actual reasons we have so colorful products. While preparing the launch of our new pushbuttons, our communication expert came up with the above picture, which I believe would not be out of place in a modern art gallery.
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