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Color-Coded Characters

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Top row, left to right: Dewey, Huey, and Louie.
Bottom row, left to right: Uhhh - I think that one's Huey, no wait... Huey's on the right. Or is it...

When a creator of a work introduces a large number of characters at once, such as at the beginning of a work, they have to find a way to distinguish them and make them memorable in the audience's mind. Some of the ways they do that is to give them memorable names or personality traits. But perhaps the easiest way ties to human's strongest sense: our sight. By giving each character a specific Color Motif, the audience can quickly come to associate one color with that character and tell the characters apart with only a glance.

Note that this is not always the only way to tell the characters apart. It is usually just one of many.

Bright, contrasting colors, particularly primary colors, are common. Regardless who they're assigned to, you can almost always count on a Red and a Blue to appear. Green and Yellow are also common. To round out a team after using the four primary colors you might see Pink for the only girl. If The Hero doesn't get Red or Blue, then they probably get White or Black with the four supporting members doing Chromatic Arrangement. Though as part of the group Black has an odd tendency to swap with Green too. Purple, Orange and other colors are less common unless you have enough units for a full Rainbow Motif or more. Metallic colors like Gold and Silver are usually reserved for the badass Sixth Ranger, as with Black and White if they haven't been used yet.

This trope can come into play with Palette Swap (colors used in Video Games), and how to tell characters apart with Only Six Faces. Often applies to Superhero Team Uniforms.

A Super-Trope to Chromatic Arrangement and Color-Coded Secret Identity. A Sub-Trope of Colour-Coded for Your Convenience.

Compare Color-Coded Elements (when the color also pertains to the character's Elemental Power), Color-Coded Speech, Color Motif, Colorful Theme Naming and Red Is Heroic.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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    Advertising 
  • Freakies:
    • BossMoss: Dark Green
    • Snorkledorf: Blue
    • Hamhose: Yellow or Beige (it switches between the two)
    • Grumble: Orange
    • Cowmumble: Light Green
    • Gargle: Purple
    • Goody-Goody: Magenta
  • Monster Cereals:
    • Count Chocula: Brown
    • Frankenberry: Pink
    • Boo Berry: Blue
    • Fruit Brute: Green or Red, depending on the media
    • Fruity Yummy Mummy: Orange or Purple, depending on the media
    • Carmella Creeper: Green and caramel orange

    Animation 
  • Noonbory and the Super 7 gives its main cast two (sometimes three) signature colours:
    • Noonbory - White/green/orangenote 
    • Jetybory - Pink/orange
    • Lunabory - Yellow/purple
    • Cozybory - Purple/pink
    • Totobory - Brown/green/orange
    • Pongdybory - Blue/orange
    • Lukybory - Yellow/orange
    • Kikibory/PinkAru - Pink
  • Oddbods gives each character a defining color jumpsuit:
    • Fuse - Red
    • Newt - Pink
    • Pogo - Blue
    • Bubbles - Yellow
    • Jeff - Purple
    • Zee - Green
    • Slick - Orange
    • All background Oddbods - Grey
  • In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the six main goats are each associated with a particular color, and in most places they're usually represented these colors. The specific colors are as follows:
    • Weslie is blue.
    • Paddi is yellow.
    • Sparky is brown.
    • Tibbie is pink.
    • Jonie is red.
    • Slowy is green.
  • In Tayo the Little Bus, the four main buses are color-coded this way: Tayo is blue, Rogi is red, Gani is green, and Lani is yellow.
  • White Snake (2019): Blanca, the eponymous White Snake is associated with white and light blue. Her sister Verta, the Green Snake is associated with black and green.

    Arts 
  • Oni Embodiments: The two Onis are identical in design, only differing in the color of their skin. "A" is red while "Um" is blue, this is meant as a shorthand for the emotions they represent.

    Comic Books 
  • Batman: Batman is blue, Robin is red, Batgirl is purple, at least when it's just them. Becomes more of a case by case basis as you add more members of the Bat-Family, mantles are passed down, and code names get updated.
    • Robin (1993): Tim Drake's initial Robin costume was primarily green and Stephanie's Spoiler was eggplant purple. Tim's narration boxes were given a green drop-shadow or green filled while Stephanie's were purple cursive on light lavender making them green and purple coded respectively. Tim's green association became less consistent after his costume lost its green to make it better match his red and black DCAU costume but by this time Steph was "dead" and he was the sole narrator and protagonist of the book.
    • Li'l Gotham has four Robins active simultaneously, and a chibi art style that makes them all look similar, so they each have a color, which appears on their masks when they're in uniform and accessories such as scarves when they're not. Dick's is blue, Jason's is red, Tim's is black, and Damian's is green. Bruce wears one of the Batsuits that's just gray and black, without blue or yellow highlights, and has gray accessories.
  • Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Donald Duck's nephews wear caps colored red, blue and green; however, originally there was no set association between nephew and color. Eventually it was established that red=Huey, blue=Dewey and green=Louie, but occasionally artists will still mix them up. Since the nephews are otherwise identical in appearance and personality, it doesn't actually matter which one is which.
  • East of West: Each of the Four Horsemen have a color associated with them, which helps identify them during flashbacks to when they had different bodies. War is red, Conquest is blue, and Famine is yellow. Death was initially black, but a traumatic experience in the backstory caused him to change to white, which is his color from the story’s start onwards.
  • Inferior Five: Merryman is magenta, Awkwardman is blue, Blimp is green, Dumb Bunny is red, and White Feather is orange and white.
  • Loop: One twin wears blue and holds a blue pillow, and the other twin wears red.
  • Power Pack: The Powers siblings wore similar costumes coloured white, magenta, blue and yellow. The costumes don't actually help the readers differentiate, since they don't look alike, but because the kids' powers are interchangeable, the colors sometimes designate who's got which power at present. Whenever Franklin Richards joined them as Tattletale, though, his costume was always red.
  • Supergirl: In Supergirl (1982) #4, the titular heroine fights The Gang, a super-villain team. The Gang's members wear similar armored suits colored red, blue, yellow and green (by the way, this story is older than the Power Rangers franchise).
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: An interesting example. While this trope has overall been played straight across the franchise, it was averted with the original comic, where not only did all of the turtles have the same skin tone, their bandannas were all red (whenever they got colored at all), making it hard to tell the four apart even when they did have their trademark weapons (this even applied in-universe, with Splinter at one point being unable to tell which one was Michalangelo and having to trick him into identifying himself so he could be punished for misbehaving). The new IDW comics used the red bandannas for the first story arc and then switched to the multicolored ones.
    • On the other side of the spectrum are the original toys, where not only did Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael all have their specifically-colored bandannas, their green skin tones were all in unique shades as well. This was duplicated in the second cartoon, making the turtles easier to differentiate from each other. See the Western Animation folder below.
    • The rest of the installments have just opted for similar skin tones, with the bandannas and weapons being the aids to tell the guys apart.
    • Of note, all but Donatello follow the characteristics typically associated with their colors. Leonardo is the leader of the team of heroes, Raphael is the most aggressive of the group but still a good guy, and Michelangelo is the energetic party dude of the team. Donatello is still a good warrior, but is more associated with science and intelligence than power.
  • Tintin: from the book "Red Rackham's Treasure" and onwards:
    • Tintin = light blue (even in "Destination Moon", he is one of the only two characters to wear some blue overalls instead of green).
    • Captain Haddock = dark blue (even in "Destination Moon", he is one of the only two characters to wear some blue overalls instead of green).
    • The Thompsons = black (except for when they wear green overalls in "Destination Moon").
    • Professor Calculus = green.
  • Wonder Woman Vol. 4: The members of the Greek pantheon who were most prominent were each associated with a color: Artemis, goddess of the moon and hunt, with Silver, Hera, queen of the gods, with peacock green, Apollo, the new king of the gods with purple, Demeter with green, Hermes with light blue and Ares with beige.
  • X-Men: Partway through the run of All-New X-Men, the teenage versions of the original X-Men were given matching, color-coded costumes; Cyclops was Blue, Iceman was Cyan, Angel was Red, Beast was Orange, and Marvel Girl was Green.
  • Young Justice: The "core four" were each connected to a color they both wore and sometimes filled the background of their narration boxes; Impulse was red, Superboy was blue, Robin was green, and Wonder Girl was black/yellow. In addition, Secret was associated with smoky gray, and Empress was associated with purple and gold.

    Comic Strips 
  • The Outrageous World of Alex and Charlie: Each main character is associated with a color which they tend to wear. Alex is pink, Charlie is red, Tyler is blue, Lizzy is purple, Garth is black, and Dazelle is teal.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla MonsterVerse fanfiction, Thor is revealed by Methuselah to be an In-Universe case: most of Thor's species had gray coats to camouflage themselves against bleak landscapes instead of Thor's vibrant red coat.
  • A Big Blue House in Tall Pine Grove:
    • Sandrine: Pink
    • Theresa: Red
    • Lumpy: Yellow
  • Cave Dancers Pretty Cure:
    • Cure Wisdom: Pink
    • Cure Banana: Yellow
    • Cure Space: Purple/Orange
    • Cure Crimson: Red
  • The Danganronpa fanfiction trilogy Danganronpa: Memento Mori, Danganronpa: Komm Susser Tod and Danganronpa: Paradise Lost all have characters associated with a specific color, with their clothing and occasionally hair colors being reflective of it. As for specifics:
    • Memento Mori:
      • Kaori: Pink
      • Daigo: Gray
      • Ayane: Red
      • Ren: Orange
      • Kozue: White
      • Masao: Teal
      • Umiko: Blue
      • Mugen: Purple
      • Yura: Yellow
      • Souta: Tan
      • Haruhi: Green
      • Yukiharu: Cyan
      • Luka: Mint
      • Hirou: Brown
      • Madoka: Magenta
      • Kaiji: Black
    • Komm Susser Tod:
      • Reiji: Red
      • Asuka: Lilac
      • Mamoru: Green
      • Kira: Black
      • Masato: Yellow
      • Shouko: Orange
      • Ukyo: Cyan
      • Mayu: Purple
      • Shuya: Teal
      • Chie: Lime
      • Tetsuo: Blue
      • Nanae: Pink
      • Iori: Crimson
      • Usagi: Gray
      • Sasuke: White
      • Homura: Brown
    • Paradise Lost:
      • Daisuke: Blue
      • Noriko: Pink
      • Kenji: Gray
      • Sumire: Purple
      • Takeshi: Yellow
      • Miyuki: Cyan
      • Yashiro: Black
      • Shion: White
      • Goh: Lime
      • Ayaka: Magenta
      • Shun: Red
      • Yae: Silver
      • Akihiro: Green
      • Ringo: Orange
      • Junpei: Brown
      • Momiji: Lilac
  • Evangelion 303: Each pilot has their own color:
    • Shinji: White
    • Asuka: Red
    • Rei: Blue
    • Kaworu: Black
    • Mari: Pink
  • In the Pretty Cure drabble "Ice Cream", the ice cream flavours correspond to the Cures' main colours; French vanilla for Honoka (white), and strawberry for Saki (pink).
  • Fiona's five personalities from Kira Is Justice each has their own color. In order of speaking order: White, Blue, Yellow, Green, and Pink.
  • The new team seven in Teenage Jinchuriki Shinobi:
  • In a probable Shout-Out to Kill Bill, the evil ninjas in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfic Flutterspy use Code Names that combine this trope with Animal Theme Naming: Red Adder, Blue Cobra and Yellow Viper. They all have tan fur, but their eyes, their manes (which have been dyed), and their outfits are all in the appropriate color.
  • This is rampant in RWBY: Second Generation. Just like in the main series it's based on, everyone's name and outfit reflects a color of some sort.
  • In Child of the Storm, Magneto is mentioned as having grey eyes, grey hair, and steel-grey casual clothes. Guess why.
  • Each of the Spirit in Date A Re:Live has a color associated to them and their Spacequakes, including those not associated to the Sephirot. During the Sephira Fury arc, a few of the Spirits' colors switch, which was stated due to be the result of improper alignment in-universe.
    • Origami’s is White
    • Nia's is Gray/Silver
    • Kurumi's is Black
    • Yoshino's is Blue
    • Kotori's is Red
    • Mukuro's is Yellow/Gold
    • Natsumi's is Green
    • The Yamai twins are Orange
    • Miku's is Indigo
    • Tohka's is Purple
    • Rinne and Rio's are Pink
    • Mayuri's is Cyan
    • Shido's is Clear
    • Mana's is Violet
    • Maria's is Brown
    • Marina's is Magenta
    • Mio's is Rainbow

    Film — Animated 
  • Cars
    • Piston Cup racecars:
      • Intersection #00, purple, maroon, and white
      • Tow Cap #4, yellow, purple, and white
      • Syner G #5, green, blue, and purple
      • Dale Earnhardt Jr. #8, red, black, and white
      • Combustr #11, black, blue, and green
      • Ignitr (Jackson Storm) #20: black, blue, and gray
      • Blinkr #21, orange, blue, and white
      • Nitroade #28, red, orange, and black
      • Mood Springs #33, blue, purple, and black
      • Trunk Fresh #34, yellow, green, and black
      • Shifty Drug #35, magenta, yellow, and white
      • Tank Coat #36, pink, red, and white
      • ViewZeen #39, blue, teal, and orange
      • Dinoco (Strip "The King" Weathers) #43, blue, orange, and white
      • Easy Idle #51, blue, black, and white
      • Leakless #52, yellow, black, and white
      • Faux Wheel Drive #54, blue, green, and brown
      • Fiber Fuel #56, orange, yellow, and white
      • Octane Gain #58, orange, black, and white
      • Vitoline #61, green, gray, and white
      • Transberry Juice #63, blue, purple, and yellow
      • RPM #64, orange, blue, and yellow
      • Carbon Cyber #67, green, gray, and teal
      • N2O Cola #68, purple, green, and white
      • Gasprin #70, blue, yellow, and black
      • RevNGo #73, blue, orange, and red
      • Sidewall Shine #74, red, yellow, and white
      • Vinyl Toupee #76, purple, black, and white,
      • Retread #79, purple, red, and white
      • Creme-filled Gaskits #80, red, yellow, and blue
      • Shiny Wax #82, green, yellow, and white
      • ReVolting #84a, red, gray, and white
      • Apple Computer #84b, black, white, and gray
      • Hostile Takeover Bank (Chick Hicks) #86, green, orange, and yellow
      • Bumper Save #90, red, teal, and white
      • Sputter Stop #92, orange, teal, and white
      • Spare-O-Mint #93, blue, green, and white
      • RustEze Medicated Bumper Ointment (Lightning McQueen) #95, red, orange, and yellow
      • Tach-O-Mint #101, brown, green, and white
      • Li'l Torquey Pistons #117, red, blue, and black
      • Clutch Aid #121, blue, green, and black
      • No Stall #123, red, black, and yellow
    • World Grand Prix racecars:
      • Francesco Bernoulli #1, green, white, and red
      • Lewis Hamilton #2, black and yellow
      • Max Schnell #4, purple, black, red, and yellow
      • Miguel Camino #5, red, orange, and white
      • Raoul Çaroule #6, blue, white, and red
      • Shu Todoroki #7, red and white
      • Carla Veloso #8, blue, green, and yellow
      • Nigel Gearsley #9, green, black, and orange
      • Rip Clutchgoneski #10, red, orange, and green
      • Jeff Gorvette #24, yellow, red, white, and blue
      • Lightning McQueen #95, red, orange, and yellow
  • The Disney Princess lineup, which selects colors usually from their dresses:
  • The anthropomorphic personifications in Inside Out have color motifs as often as not traditionally associated with the emotions they embody:
    • Joy, yellow
    • Disgust, green
    • Anger, red
    • Fear, purple
    • Sadness, blue
  • Home (2015): Tip (green), Oh (Blue), Captain Smek (red), Pig (yellow), Kyle (orange) and Lucy (purple); as seen here.
  • The villains in Cinderella:
    • Lady Tremaine, maroon (changed to purple in the sequels)
    • Anastasia, magenta
    • Drizella, green
  • All of the angels in Little Angels The Brighest Christmas wear a different color, and notably turn into that color when they travel as a rainbow. There's a pink angel, a yellow angel, a blue angel, a green angel, an indigo angel, and even a violet-wearing dog angel.
  • Big Hero 6, the titular team has these colors in their hero suits, and their ultra armor from Season 2 of the TV spin-off being black with highlights of that color.
    • Hiro - Purple
    • Baymax - Red
    • GoGo - Yellow
    • Wasabi - Green
    • Honey Lemon - Pink
    • Fred - Blue
  • In Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, each princess's dress is a distinct color:
    • Ashlyn: Violet
    • Blair: Red
    • Courtney: Royal blue
    • Delia: Green
    • Edeline: Orange
    • Fallon: Orchid
    • Genevieve: Hot pink
    • Hadley: Teal
    • Isla: Purple
    • Janessa: Sky blue
    • Kathleen: Tangerine
    • Lacey: Lilac
  • In Encanto, the members of the Family Madrigal can be sorted by the colors they wear, which is helpful, as there are quite a lot of them. Abuela Alma wears a deep maroon, and each of her three children has a specific color palette: Pepa wears the warm shades of red, orange, and yellow; Bruno is in pale green; and Julieta wears the cool shades of blue, purple, and soft pink. Pepa and Julieta's husbands Felix and Agustin wear the same colors as their wives, as do their children (Dolores, Camilo, and Antonio for the former and Isabel, Luisa, and Mirabel for the latter), allowing viewers to instantly know who is specifically related to who.
  • In The Mitchells vs. the Machines, each member of the Mitchell family is represented by the color of the piece of clothing they wear above their waist. During the final battle, the family's colors appear on a rainbow imagined by Katie.
    • Rick: Yellow
    • Linda: Lavender
    • Katie: Red
    • Aaron: Blue
  • In Turning Red, Mei and her friends all primarily wear one color: Mei is red (later pink), Miriam is green, Priya is yellow, Abby is purple, and Tyler is blue.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey: Dave Bowman has a red spacesuit and Frank Poole has a yellow one (though their regular clothes are both similar shades of grey). There is also a blue spacesuit visible in the background of some shots and Dave pulls the helmet from an otherwise-unseen green one, probably both intended for the three crew members in hibernation before they were killed by HAL.
  • 8 Women: Through their clothing, the eight women are associated with certain colors that are usually related to their Flower Motifs.
    • Suzon: Pink (pink rose)
    • Mamy: Violet (violet)
    • Chanel: Yellow (sunflower)
    • Gaby: Leopard patterns (tiger orchid) and teal
    • Louise: Black and white (white orchid)
    • Augustine: Copper (achiote)
    • Catherine: Green (daisy)
    • Pierrette: Red (red rose)
  • Cinderella (2015): Ella usually wears blue, Lady Tremaine usually wears green, Drisella usually wears yellow and Anastasia usually wears pink.
  • Clue: A very interesting case: like in the board game, the six main suspects each dress basically with one color; unlike the board game, however, the colors do not match their names. (Perhaps a partial Deconstruction, since the names they're refered to are just aliases.)
    • It gets weirder, as four of the characters appear to create a circle of mismatched monotones:
    Colonel Mustard wears red, like Miss Scarlet should
    Miss Scarlet wears green, like Mr. Green should
    Mr. Green wears blue, like Mrs. Peacock should
    And Mrs. Peacock wears yellow, like Colonel Mustard should, bringing it full-circle.
    Though not part of the above loop, Mrs. White is worth noting in that the inside of her coat actually is white, but we only see this for about five seconds, in the process Lampshading her alias. But for the majority of the film, she wears black.
    Mr. Plum, uh... he wears brown.
  • Israeli film Cupcakes features Girl Group-ish "Anat Ofa", where each member has an identifying color. At one point, they each receive a pair of sunglasses that "paints" the world in their personal color:
    • Anat: Red
    • Dana: Blue
    • Yael: Yellow
    • Keren: Green
    • Efrat: Purple
    • Ofer: Pink
  • Invoked with the spacesuits in Destination Moon.
  • The main characters of the Eastrail 177 Trilogy each have a unique color that's shown in their clothes and surroundings.
    • Unbreakable: David Dunn has the color green (and is sometimes called the Green Guard later in his life) while Elijah Price/Mr. Glass gains a purple motif as he grows older and settles into his villainous role.
    • Introduced in Split, Kevin/The Horde/The Beast has varying shades of yellow.
    • Dr. Ellie Staple is associated with a dull pink color that is less emphasized than the colors above because she is not a superhuman, but a professional member of the Cape Busters.
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) features the four major Kaiju in this manner, especially shown in the marketing:
    • Godzilla: Blue, usually a bright Cherenkov blue.
    • Mothra: Green, usually a teal or turquoise shade.
    • Rodan: Red, specifically darker reds, such as Venetian red.
    • Ghidorah: Harsh shades of yellow and gold.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong is not quite as stylized in its colouration as the previous film, but carries this on in a subtler form.
    • Godzilla is still associated with the same shades of radioactive blue.
    • Kong is represented by a warm sunset shade of orange.
    • Mechagodzilla is associated with a hellish, police-siren red and metallic silver.
  • The Great Race: Leslie wears white and all his gear is white. Professor Fate wears black and his car is black.
  • Heathers. Most of the primary characters wear their own color of clothing which represents their dominant emotions, though this isn't noticeable at first. Heather Chandler is red for lust and power in school, Heather McNamara is yellow for her cowardliness, Heather Duke is green for her jealousy towards Heather Chandler's power and later wears red when she gains power, Veronica is blue representing her misery in high school, and J.D. is black showing him as a deathbringer and the antagonist. Chandler's red hair bow becomes a symbol of power, as after her death Duke claims it for herself, symbolizing her replacement of the original Heather. Veronica forcefully taking it from Duke at the end of the film shows the end of the Heathers' power.
  • Help!: The Beatles' house, with John = red, Paul = white, George = green, and Ringo = blue.
  • Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters each have a respective base color; green for Winifred, pink for Sarah, and orange for Mary.
  • In Hussar Ballad Shura, the main character, is the only one in the whole movie to wear a light grey uniform, and stands out in every crowd. The diversity of Russian uniforms at the time makes it easy to color code other characters as well: Rzhevsky, for example, is the only one to wear blue-and-gold hussar uniform.
  • Jurassic Park:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean - very subtly Jack-Red, Will-Blue, Elizabeth-Yellow, Barbossa-Green.
  • Ran gives each main character an identifying color, as well as their respective armies.
    • Hidetora: White
    • Taro: Yellow
    • Jiro: Red
    • Saburo: Blue
  • Played with in Reservoir Dogs: each of the robbers is given a colour-based codename (Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, etc), but they all wear identical black suits, shades and have slicked-back hair precisely in order to make identification (in the context of a police lineup) more difficult.
  • Also done in the Polish/East German film Der Schweigende Stern (better known in America as First Spaceship to Venus or The Silent Star), where each of the cast wears a distinct color of spacesuit.
    • Science fiction films lend themselves well to this trope, since from a filmmaking standpoint, having a coloured spacesuit assigned to each character (as the previous three examples describe) makes it easier to distinguish the characters when you can't see their faces. In-universe, it also makes it easier for the characters to tell each other apart when they can't see each other's faces.
  • Sky High (2005): There's a prevalent theme in pairing up characters with complementary color themes. Specifically, Will wears almost exclusively red, white and blue, plant girl Layla wears both pink and green, and human glow stick Zach wears neon yellowish-green and white. Justified, in that you would want to play up your powers to impress your classmates. Besides, if your parents are superheroes with similar powers, similar colors would be included in their costumes. Because they like those colours, you would be exposed to them throughout your childhood.
  • Speed Racer: by Word of God in the DVD Extras.
    • Speed - Blue
    • Pops - Red
    • Trixie - Pink
    • Racer X - Black
    • Taejo - White (really, the whole Togokahn family)
    • Spritle - Yellow
    • Royalton - Purple
    • Mom - Green
    • Sparky - Orange
  • The Breakfast Club
    • Bender - Red
    • Andrew - Blue
    • Brian - Green
    • Allison - Black becomes White after her makeover.
    • Claire - Pink
  • The brothers in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), naturally. April is also codified by her Yellow jacket.
    • Leonardo: Blue
    • Raphael: Red
    • Donatello: Purple
    • Michelangelo: Orange
  • The Terminator: The three punks in the opening. The leader has blue hair, his second-in-command has blonde hair and the punk who ends up surrendering his clothes to the T-800 has red eye makeup.
  • Transformers Film Series:
    • Optimus Prime is distinguishably blue and red.
    • Bumblebee for yellow and black, of course.
    • Ironhide for black.
    • Ratchet for lime green, he is made completely green starting in Dark of the Moon.
    • Jazz and Sideswipe for silver.
    • Drift is notably a mix of blue, black and gold.
    • Most major Decepticons are given dull colors of black, grey, silver and navy green to make them contrastable from the Autobots - despite the fact that in almost every Transformers fiction outside the live-action movies, they're just as colorful as the Autobots. This would be changed in Bumblebee, with more faithfully colorful Decepticon designs.
    • Played more within Bumblebee, which due to the significantly reduced primary cast of Transformers themselves, all manage to be distinguished through color alone. The titular heroic Bumblebee is still yellow, while the antagonistic Shatter and Dropkick are red and blue, respectively.
  • X-Men Film Series:
    • Although Professor Charles Xavier is comfortable enough with his masculinity to confidently wear "feminine" hues such as periwinkle, pink or lilac, he's mainly associated with various shades of blue, grey and white.
    • While not in her X-Men uniform, Jean Grey often likes to dress in red clothing.
    • Quicksilver's civilian attire is usually accompanied by something silver, whether it's a jacket, pants, sneakers and/or sunglasses.
    • X-Men: First Class: Emma Frost's wardrobe consists exclusively of white outfits.
    • The Wolverine:
      • Yukio has an affinity for fiery red.
      • Viper has a preference for green.
    • Deadpool (2016): Black must be Negasonic Teenage Warhead's favourite because that's the only colour she wears when she's not in her X-Men suit.
  • In Logan's Run, every person has a crystal embedded into the palm of their hand, which changes color depending on the age of the person. In addition, most of the cast wears outfits that correspond to the color of their crystal.

    Literature 
  • The Hobbit: Tolkien lists the colors of the Dwarves' hooded cloaks, as if that would help you keep them straight. If you pair up colors and names in the orders they are both listed, you should get:
    • Dwalin - Dark green
    • Balin - Scarlet
    • Fíli and Kíli - Blue
    • Dori and Nori - Purple
    • Ori - Grey
    • Óin - Brown
    • Glóin - White
    • Bifur and Bofur - Yellow
    • Bombur - Pale green
    • Thorin - Sky-blue with a long silver tassle
  • in Dungeon Core stories, the crystalline core of a living dungeon often has a notable color. This is no different in "No Need for a Core?"; Mordecai's core half is Purple in color, and he deliberately gives his avatars dark purple hair. Kazue's core half is gold, and while she keeps her original hair color (red) she does tend to add gold themes into her clothing. And the clothes of her husband and wife.
  • Spy High: The team's official codenames after graduation are Edward Red, Angel Blue (Lori), Benjamin White, Jake Black, Callista Green and Agent Orange (Bex). The second series of books is titled accordingly. We never find out what colour Jennifer would have been, though it's possible she was the original Orange.
  • The Sherwood Ring: Dick - an officer in the Continental army - naturally wears blue, as does his love interest Eleanor; Peaceable - an officer in the British army - wears red, as does his love interest Barbara.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire differentiates the members of different Great Houses by a certain hair color/eye color combination. This, heavily coupled with Artistic License – Biology, is actually a plot point - the Baratheon phenotype is invariably dominant over the Lannister one, and none of King Robert's legitimate children are black-haired or blue-eyed. Characters are also associated with the colors of their house sigil.
    • House Stark (gray and white sigil) is gray-eyed and dark brown/black-haired, although this is subverted with Catelyn Tully's additions to the gene pool.
    • House Lannister (gold and red) is green-eyed and blonde.
    • House Baratheon (black and gold)is blue-eyed and black-haired.
    • House Tully (red and blue) is blue-eyed and redheaded.
    • House Greyjoy (gold and black) is black-eyes and black haired.
    • House Arryn (blue and white) is blue-eyes and dirty blonde haired.
    • House Tyrell (gold and green) is brown-eyed and brown-haired.
    • House Martell (orange and yellow) is dark-skinned, black-haired, and dark-eyed.
    • House Targaryen (red and black) has silver-blond hair and purple eyes.
    • Additionally, Renly Baratheon, one of the claimants to the throne, has his own special group of bodyguards called the Rainbow Guard, consisting of seven members, each of a different color. Loras Tyrell, the lord commander of the guard, wears white; Brienne of Tarth, a later POV character, wears blue (which, conveniently, is also the color primarily associated with her home of Tarth, known as the Sapphire Isle for the blue of its waters).
  • Applied three times in A.L. Phillips's The Quest of the Unaligned.
    • Each of the various social/magical castes in the kingdom of Caederan wears different colors. The magicless peasants wear brown, the handful of peasant mages wear a white sash and robes in the color of their alignment (red for aeshes, blue for shamais, green for aretzes, and silver for ruahks), the aligned nobles wear white robes with trim in the color of their element, and the unaligned royal house wears white robes with golden trim.
    • It is mentioned that all citizens of the city-state of Tonzimmiel wear the same shirt-and-pants uniform, with color indicating your profession.
    • Finally, each of the three main heroes has a different primary color on the cover. Alaric wears the brownish uniform of a Tonzimmelian Security Force officer, Laeshana is in the red robes of an aesh, and Nahruahn is clad in white, as befits his noble lineage.
  • Students in Idlewild set their own callsigns that blink between two colors. Most of them coordinate these with their outfits and personal domains.
  • An interesting example in Mark Z. Danielewski's The Familiar, where each character's chapters are represented by a different color in the top corners of the page. The color represents an aspect of their personality, and is usually what they are wearing throughout.
  • The Handmaid's Tale: In the Republic of Gilead, women and girls are identified by their roles in society according to their strict dress code.
    • The titular Handmaids wear red to symbolize their fertility.
    • Wives (consorts of the Commanders) = blue.
    • Aunts (female enforcers of the regime) = brown.
    • Marthas (menial servants) = green.
    • Jezebels (state-sponsored pleasure slaves) = purple.
    • Daughters (female children of Wives and Commanders) = white.
  • In Elbow Grease by John Cena, each of the main characters has a color from the rainbow to represent him or her:
  • Word of Mouse: The scientists at the lab Isiah and his family were kept in had all their fur genetically dyed into groups of colours to better organize them. Isiah's fur is blue, and one of his relatives has red fur.
  • Divergent: The factions are all symbolized by specific colors, which also dictate the color of their clothing. The Factionless noticeably wear mismatched colors, showing that they don't belong in any specific faction.

    Music 
  • This is standard practice for Japanese and Korean idol units. It was initially done as a way to tell apart different members on stages as well as the management agencies' way of making more money by putting out merchandise in multiple colors. Eventually, it became the fans' own way of showing loyalty and admiration of their favorite members. Fans show support for their favorite member at live events by waving "sign lights", electronic glow sticks sold as merchandise, preset with the members' colors. It has, of course, carried over to 2D and 2.5D idols (that is, anime characters who release singles alongside "real" music acts), such as Love Live, Tsukiuta, and Uta No Prince Sama.
  • NEWS: With the exception of Koyama who vacillates between Brown and Purple, the other members generally stick to the same colors when it comes to costumes. Tegoshi is Pink, Kato is Green, Nishikido is Blue, Yamashita is Red and Masuda is Yellow.
  • The Evillious Chronicles franchise makes use of Vocaloids for its songs and subsequently draws on their already existing Color Motifs for the series' characters. Characters portrayed by KAITO have a blue motif, characters portrayed by MEIKO have red, Miku characters have green/turquoise, etc. This also has the side effect of the colors representing the Seven Deadly Sins being very mismatched from the colors they are traditionally associated with however (with the exception of possibly Sloth, associated with the Miku character Margarita).
  • Red Velvet members have designated colors ever since their debut and these colors have since continued into their other music videos and live performances.
    • Irene - Red/Pink
    • Seulgi - Yellow/Orange
    • Wendy - Blue
    • Joy - Green
    • Yeri - Purple
  • MAMAMOO The members were each assigned a color and season for their 4Seasons album project. These colors were used as the primary color of their respective dresses in the Paint Me music video and the special photocards included in the White Wind mini album:
    • Solar - Color: Blue, Season: Autumn
    • Moonbyul - Color: Red, Season: Summer
    • Wheein - Color: White, Season: Winter
    • Hwasa - Color: Yellow, Season: Spring
  • Tsukiuta, a series of months as idols with a male and female representative for each month, has the same color for both members of each month. So, Shun and Tsubaki, the November idols, are both silver; Hajime and Yuki, the January members, are both purple, etc. The spinoffs that fall under the Tsukipro label all also have color-codes. There are over 10 blue members, and none of them are the exact same shade except for the aforementioned May and July pairs. They also have a collection of color-coded mascots for each series of two units, starting with rabbits, of course, for the months, and continuing with dogs, squirrels, cats, and birds, but only the cats have gotten a stop-motion video.
  • LOONA Each member has had an assigned color and animal (along with Choerry, Yves, Chuu, Gowon and Olivia Hye each having an assigned fruit) since debut and they often carry over into the groups music videos and merchandise:
    • Heejin - Bright Pink, Rabbit
    • Hyunjin - Yellow, Cat
    • Haseul - Green, White Bird
    • Yeojin - Orange, Frog
    • Vivi - Pastel Rose, Deer
    • Kim Lip - Red, Owl
    • Jinsoul - Blue, Blue Betta Fish
    • Choerry - Purple, Fruit Bat, Cherry
    • Yves - Burgundy, Swan, Apple
    • Chuu - Peach, Penguin, Strawberry
    • Gowon - Eden Green, Butterfly, Pineapple
    • Olivia Hye - Grey/Silver, Wolf, Blood Plum
  • TWICE Each member has an assigned color which is commonly used in individual merchandise such as photocards:
    • Jihyo - Apricot
    • Nayeon - Sky Blue
    • Jeongyeon - Chartreuse
    • Momo - Pink
    • Sana - Purple
    • Mina - Mint
    • Dahyun - White
    • Chaeyoung - Red
    • Tzuyu - Blue
  • B.A.P members' Matoki mascots are represented each with a different color since debut:
    • Yongguk - Red
    • Himchan - Pink
    • Daehyun - Gray
    • Youngjae - Yellow
    • Jongup - Green
    • Zelo - Blue
  • One of the defining traits of Momoiro Clover Z (Green, Pink, Red, Yellow, and Purple)note  and their fellow idol acts in Stardust Planet, with each group having its own distinct color scheme.
    • Team Syachihoko: Green, Blue, Red, Yellownote , Purple, and formerly Pinknote .
    • Takoyaki Rainbow: Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, and Purple. Like Momoclo, they also had a Rednote  Leader, until she graduated in 2014.
    • Shiritsu Ebisu Chuugaku primarily uses attendence numbers, but also occasionally uses individual member colors. The current lineup: Purple, Green, Lime/Light Greennote , Pink, Bluenote , Orangenote , Yellow, and Aqua/Light Blue. In 2021 new members were added, taking Red, Lime, and Whitenote  as their official color. 2022 will add "Honey Orange"/Amber and "Milk Tea"/Beige.
  • The boyband JLS, who, thanks to their rise to fame on The X Factor, are colour-coded, and have carried it into their music career, often performing not just in coloured clothing, but having coloured tape around their microphones and coloured earpieces. It's almost guaranteed that if you used their real names (Aston, JB, Marvin and Oritse) very few people would know who you were talking about, but if you said 'the blue/red/green/yellow guy from JLS,' they would.
  • Lovebites as a whole usually wear white, to contrast with the stereotypical black of the metal genre.
  • The Wiggles: All the members since 1992 wear their signature shirts/skivvies.
    • Murray/Simon - Red
    • Greg/Sam/Emma - Yellow
    • Anthony - Blue, though in early years, green
    • Jeff/Lachy - Purple
    • Captain Feathersword - Pink
    • Dorothy - Green
    • Wags - Brown
    • Henry - Indigo
  • The music video for YOASOBI's "Sangenshoku" (AKA "RGB") follows three characters associated with red, blue, and green.
  • Tally Hall: Their signature ties:
    • Andrew is green
    • Joe is red
    • Rob is yellow
    • Ross is gray
    • Zubin is blue
    • Bora, who is basically an honorary member of the band, is orange
      • This originally was used to make them stand out from other Ann Arbor bands, and the colors were chosen based on their instrument colors. Ross "inherited" Steven's gray tie when he replaced him in the band.
      • They've said before that purple can be the tie color for fans.
  • The Beatles in the famous Abbey Road Crossing. John is in white, Ringo wears a black pinstripe suit, Paul wears a grey suit (and no shoes), while less-formal George wears bluejeans and a blue denim work shirt.
  • The Saturdays: Often played with, as the artwork for the Chasing Lights era prominently featured the girls wearing a different color each, though no one colour was specifically assigned to any of them. This is especially prominent in the video for "Up".
  • Each member of KISS got a designated color with their 1978 solo albums. Those colors were then incorporated into their new stage costumes in 1979 and each band member rose up to the stage under a spotlight of their designated color at the beginning of their concerts that year.
    • Gene Simmons - Red
    • Paul Stanley - Purple
    • Ace Frehley - Blue
    • Peter Criss - Green
      • When Eric Carr replaced Peter Criss on drums, they had the same guy who painted the solo album portraits do one of him as well, and his "color" was orange.
  • Mystery Skulls' animated music video for Ghost features characters that are blue, yellow, red, and pink. The leader character seems to be the yellow one, however, and the pink character is a male ghost and the main antagonist of the video.

    Puppet Shows 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • The top Japanese stars of All Japan Pro Wrestling in the 90s, the famous Four Pillars, each had a signature color that they wore. Akira Taue wore red, Toshiaki Kawada wore yellow (and black, like police tape or a warning sign; he's dangerous), Mitsuharu Misawa wore green (and white), and Kenta Kobashi wore orange. Jun Akiyama, often considered the Fifth Pillar, wore blue. They tended to make their ring entrances in jackets of the appropriate color.
  • Dragon Gate has its roster largely split between various stables, each with their own color scheme reflected in their attire and merchandise - for instance, Mad Blankey wore black and yellow. The Jimmyz are the exception, with their logo and group merch being simple black and white, but each member having an associated color — Susumu's is purple, Saito's is orange, etc. Notably absent is green, because it's so associated with Dragon Kid. And Genki Horiguchi doesn't actually wear much of his color, yellow.

    Reality Television 
  • The American reality game show Survivor features the tribes getting their own coloured buffs which the members of the tribe must wear. In later seasons especially, producers also typically picked wardrobe for each contestant that was fairly close to those tribe colors, allowing an indication of original tribes after a formal tribe swap.
  • The Amazing Race strongly encourages the members of each team to wear matching colors. It's never been made clear whether it's absolutely required.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Played straight with Atmosfear with each character having a different coloured associated with them, extending to their keys and playing pieces (except in The Harbingers)
    • Anne de Chantraine - orange (originally blue)
    • Baron Samedi - green (originally white)
    • Elizabeth Bathory - red (originally gray)
    • Gevaudan - blue (originally black)
    • Helin - purple
    • Khufu - yellow (originally red)
    • Medusa - lime
  • The game known as Cluedo or Clue somewhat inverts the trope, giving the pieces names and personas based on their colours:
    • Reverend Green (Mr. Green in some editions) - green
    • Colonel Mustard - yellow
    • Mrs. Peacock - blue
    • Professor Plum - purple
    • Miss Scarlet - red
    • Mrs. White - white
    • Dr. Orchid - pink
  • LEGO Games: In Heroica, every hero has a signature color. Barbarian is yellow, Mage is red, Druid is beige, Ranger is blue, Thief is black, Knight is silver, Prince is navy, and Sage is white. These colors are used in their inventories, so it's easier to tell them apart.

    Theatre 
  • Productions of Romeo and Juliet usually use this to distinguish between the Montagues and the Capulets, often with Monts in blue and Caps in red. Members of the house of Escalus, the Prince's family, are often shown in purple and/or gold.
    • This also carries over to West Side Story, with the Jets usually in blues and the Sharks in reds.
  • Also employed in productions of William Shakespeare's history plays, which typically involve large casts in multiple factions, all vying for the English crown.
    • Mandated by Shakespeare himself in Henry VI, where the Lancastrians wear red roses and the Yorkists wear white ones.
  • The six knights at Medieval Times Dinner And Tournament are referred to mainly by the colour of their heraldry: the Yellow Knight, the Blue Knight, the Black and White Knight, the Red and Yellow Knight, the Red Knight note , and the Green Knight. The knights also have names, heraldic charges, and kingdoms they represent, but colour is much easier for audience members (especially children) to keep track of. Colour coding is also how guests are told which knight to cheer for and which section to sit in, via the cardboard crowns they're given when they enter. Other characters, such as royalty or the Lord Chancellor, are usually dressed in unaffiliated colours, such as black and gold, or a deep purplish red.

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE: Every wave of canister sets has characters with the same six colors: red, blue, green, black, white and brown/yellow/orangenote . Most of the time, the six colors are Color-Coded Elements, but sometimes these colors appear on non-elemental characters.
  • Each of the Rainbow High characters is themed around a specific color, which often includes their name, hair and sometimes their eyes. For example, Sunny Madison has yellow hair, while Ruby Anderson has bright red hair and her entire look is red-themed.

    Visual Novels 
  • Camp Buddy: Each character has a theme-colored neckerchief.
  • Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony:
    • All sixteen main characters are associated with the most prominent colour in their design, showcased by their names having a single character highlighted in that colour when it appears on top of the text box.
    • When the POV switches to another character, the Class Trial UI changes the colour it is highlighted in to represent the switch. Kaede's is purple, Shuichi's is blue, Keebo's is white, Himiko's is neon blue and Maki's is red.
    • In the case of the Monokubs, Monotaro is red, Monokid is blue, Monosuke is yellow, Monophanie is pink, and Monodam is green.
  • Fate/stay night: Sella and Leysritt look basically identical thanks to their uniforms. They have the same hair, eye and skin colors and their hats hide their different hairstyles. The two visual distinctions between the two: while their uniforms are almost identical, the dark-colored parts are two different colors. Sella's is dark blue (or dark purple) and Leysritt's is black. The other visual distinction are their cup sizes.
  • In Ikemen Sengoku, each of the guys have a different prominent clothing color: Nobunaga's is black, Masamune's blue, Yukimura's red, Ieyasu's yellow, Hideyoshi's green, and so on.
  • Each of the protagonists in Monster Prom are color-coded for the sake of telling them apart, as the GUI changes color based on whose turn it is. Out of the two default names, one option is to just name them after their motif; Oz/Yellow, Amira/Red, Brian/Green, and Vicky/Blue.
  • Done pretty straight in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney with Phoenix wearing blue and Edgeworth wearing magenta/maroon/some shade of red. In Edgeworth's case, you eventually know that he was also wearing the same color, albeit a different jacket, a few years before the game's main course and that his current office is an epitome of his favorite color.
    • Taken further in future installments with almost every prosecutor/attorney having their associated color, along with a few supporting members (like Maya Fey's purple or Damon Gant's bright orange).
      • Apollo Justice (Bright red/Magenta)
      • Athena Cykes (Yellow)
      • Franziska von Karma (Cyan)
      • Godot (Teal)
      • Kristoph Gavin (Sky blue or lavender)
      • Klavier Gavin (Eggplant)
      • Simon Blackquill (Black)
      • Bobby Fulbright (White)
  • Starship Promise: The heroine and the Promise crew members each have a signature color which is featured prominently in their design. The heroine is green, Orion is blue, Jaxon is red, Nova is purple, and Atlas is orange.
  • Each of the main cast members in Sweet Enchantments has a signature color dominant in their design: pink for Runa, teal for Lucien, red for Roman, and different shades of purple for Zain (dark), Liora (medium), and Emeril (lavender).

    Web Animation 
  • RWBY: All characters are associated with a colour theme that primarily defines them in some way that is linked to another theme that they are often associated with. The show takes place eighty years after a global war that attempted, among other things, to suppress creativity and artistic expression. Ever since, people around the world remember this terrible time by naming their children after colours, or things that evoke a colour association. Only the Big Good and Big Bad have names don't follow the colour scheme, and that's for plot-significant reasons. Using the titular team as an example:
    • Ruby Rose is the heroine of the story and leader of Team RWBY. She is inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. Her clothing scheme is red, with strong black accents. She wears a red cape and gets nick-named 'Little Red' by one of the villains. The Red Trailer is the show's first prequel and her introduction.
    • Weiss Schnee is inspired by Snow White, her name is German for 'White Snow' and her primary colour theme is white. She also has white hair and favours the element of ice when she fights. She is introduced in the second prequel trailer, the White Trailer.
    • Blake Belladonna is inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Her primary colour theme is black and her innate ability is to create shadow clones that deceive enemy combatants. She is introduced in the third prequel trailer, the Black Trailer. Blake does have a purple accent, which in later volumes does get used for Purple Is the New Black reasons, when black alone wouldn't stand out.
    • Yang Xiao Long is the fourth team-mate and is inspired by Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She's inordinately proud of her long golden hair and is primarily associated with the colour yellow. Her innate ability tends to light up her hair like fire when she activates it. She is introduced in the final prequel trailer, the Yellow Trailer.
  • Red vs. Blue:
    • Simulation Troopers are split into Red Army and Blue Army, and soldiers wear armour associated with their army. However, prior to Season 6's introduction of Halo 3 assets, the only way to tell apart the characters is by ensuring individuals have different shades, ranging from the purest colour forms of red and blue to shades that are nominally associated with the colour (such as brown and pink for the Reds and turquoise and yellow for the Blues).
    • The Freelancers have a wide variety of colours, but specific colour combinations are unique to each individual Freelancer, making it easy to tell everyone apart. As twins, North and South Dakota have the most similar armour, but even they have different shades and therefore can be easily told apart. As a result, certain characters are heavily associated with certain colours, such as Tex's black armour, Carolina's cyan armour the Meta's white armour, North's brown armour and Washington's yellow-accented armour (normally black). Even when Carolina later shares Turquoise with Tucker, they wear different helmets, so can still be told apart.
  • In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, supernatural creatures seem to have their own colors, which is most visibly seen in subtitles. So far we have:
    • Emperor - gold
    • Magnus - scarlet
    • Tzeenth - blue
    • Nurgle - dark green
    • Cegorach - orange
  • Bravest Warriors: Blue for Chris, green for Beth, red for Danny, and orange for Wallow.
    • Their energy weapons are a different set of colors: Chris' bee is green, Beth's whip is pink, Danny's sword is yellow, and Wallow's ax is blue.
  • Mystery Skulls Animated:
    • ??? - Green
    • Vivi - Blue
    • Lewis - Magenta note 
    • Arthur - Orange
    • Mystery - Red
    • Shiromori - White
    • Mr. Pepper - Pink
    • Mrs. Pepper - Burgundy
  • Happy Tree Friends: The main ensemble of technicolor animals.
    • Cuddles - Lemon Yellow
    • Giggles - Pink
    • Toothy - Mauve
    • Lumpy - Azure Blue
    • Petunia - Navy/Indigo
    • Handy - Orange
    • Nutty - Chartreuse
    • Sniffles - Sky Blue
    • Flaky - Crimson Red
    • Pop & Cub - Apricot Brown
    • Disco Bear - Gold
    • Mime - Violet
    • The Mole - Magenta
    • Russell - Aquamarine
    • Lifty & Shifty - Pine Green
    • Flippy - Mint Green
    • Splendid - Cyan Blue
    • Cro-Marmot - Lime Green
    • Buddhist Monkey - Dandelion Yellow
    • Lammy - Lavender
    • Truffles - Steel Blue
  • Alphabet: The letters has their own colors respectively
    • A - Tart Red
    • B - Sky Blue
    • C - Banana Yellow
    • D - Pear Green
    • E - Teal
    • F - Black
    • G - Grape Purple
    • H - Mint Green
    • I - Celeste
    • J - Lavender
    • K - Aureolin Yellow
    • L - Viridian Green
    • M - Maroon Red
    • N - Orange
    • O - Ocean Blue
    • P - Bubblegum Pink
    • Q - Beige
    • R - Wine Red
    • S - Olive Green
    • T - Pewter Grey
    • U - Lime Green
    • V - Navy Blue
    • W - Violet
    • X - Periwinkle
    • Y - Ivory
    • Z - Snow
  • The main characters of Xionic Madness are all associated with a specific color through their outfits, weapons and dialogue boxes: Omega is red, Xero is blue, Kary is green, and Askad is yellow.

    Webcomics 
  • In Alice and the Nightmare, all social castes and unaligned characters have their own colours:
    • Hearts: Pink
    • Diamonds: Blue
    • Spades: Yellow
    • Clubs: Green
    • Queen Rougina: Red
    • Queen Bianchia: White
    • Azalea: Purple
    • Nightmares: Black
    • Cinnabar Army: Red
  • Major characters in Arthur, King of Time and Space wear clothing in a distinct colour. Secondary characters wear a different shade of the colour associated with the major character they have the closest connection to. In the contemporary arc, this extends to the colour of the text in which the characters chat online, as in Homestuck, and you can even tell whose home a strip is set in by the colour of the walls.
    • Arthur: yellow (also used by his adoptive family, Uther in flashbacks, and minor knights whose main characteristic is "loyal to the Pendragons" such as Sir Ulfius)
    • Guenevere: Blue (also used by her family)
    • Lancelot: Red (also used by his family)
    • Merlin: Orange
    • Nimue: Violet
    • Morgan: Green (also used by her family, including Gawaine and his siblings)
    • Tristram: Pink (also used by his/her companions Dinadin and Palinodes, in different shades)
    • Isolde: Brown
    • Eglante: Grey (also used by her son Dodinel)
    • Pellinore: Indigo (also used by his family, including Elaine and Percival. Word of God is that the core indigo character is Pelleas)
    • Mordred: Black (also used by the villainous Duke Mark, and the non-villainous Cadoc and Constantine III, all distant relation of Arthur's)
    • Galahad: White (also used by Balan, the Lady of the Lake, and bit character Kay the Stranger)
  • In bonus pages and sketches for Cucumber Quest, characters are drawn using one color: Carrot is orange, Peridot is green-yellow, etcetera. Within the comic itself, the color purple is coded to the Nightmare Knight.
  • In Dear Children every main character that has been introduced so far seems to be associated with a color. This color helps indicate who is talking, as background characters tend to speak in a gray text boxes, whereas the main cast has a colored gradient in theirs. Each character's color can also be found somewhere on their wardrobe at all times.
    • Journalism club members: Cail is purple, Michelle is blue, Emma is orange, Devin is pink, Gabe is red, and Josh is green.
    • Other possible main characters: Isaac is lavender blue, Aaron is black.
  • Debugging Destiny uses this to distinguish characters. Which is good, since the characters have almost no other distinguishing features. The color also organizes the characters into a Geodesic Cast.
  • Earth, 2068: Every member of the main cast has an associated colour, used in the character's clothing or other elements associated with them.
  • Foxes in Love: Most characters have very similar body shapes and are visually distinguished mostly by their coloration. This especially applies to the two main characters, who are literally named Green and Blue Fox.
  • Frivolesque: Even though the characters in Frivolesque change their clothes once in a while, they always keep the same overall color scheme. On top of that, every character has a signature color that is either based on their clothes, an accessory they wear, or their hair. Chloe's color is red, Saki's is blue, Flore's is hot pink, Gaia's is green and Marie-Neige's is Sky Blue. Other character also follow this trend, like orange for Clementine, or yellow for Liliane.
  • Grim Trigger: Every character has different colored lineart that usually corresponds to their hair, eyes, or clothing
    • Tage: Green
    • Hunter: Red
    • Lodin: Maroon and pink
    • Proxy: Purple
  • Guilded Age: Each of the tanks seem to be a different colour which is associated with one of the main characters.
    • Also during the interviews, several accessories on their person are highlighted to give us an idea of their personalities/hobbies as well as who they are in the game.
    • Then there's the enigma of why Mr. Daedalus' tie is in Bandit's colors - or, more significantly, in the colours of Cultist magic.
  • Homestuck features this in spades.
    • Each of the kids has a color that is featured on their clothes, chat log text, eyes (due to the art style it's only seen in closeups) etc.: John is blue, Rose is purple, Dave is red, and Jade is green. Interestingly, John speaks in blue text while having a green symbol on his shirt, and the reverse is true of Jade as well.
    • This is actually a feature of troll society, where the Fantastic Caste System ranks people by blood color: each of the trolls types with, dresses in, and even wears make up that is the same color as their blood. Karkat, who types in grey to maintain anonymity about his blood, which is bright red, is an exception. These colors cover the visible light spectrum, resulting in a Rainbow Motif. The colours for the major Troll characters are: Rust red (Aradia), brown/orange (Tavros), mustard yellow (Sollux)note , olive green (Nepeta), jade green (Kanaya), teal (Terezi), cobalt blue (Vriska), indigo (Equius), purple (Gamzee), violet (Eridan), fuchsia (Feferi). In addition to these, there is a "lime"-colored blood in between Sollux and Nepeta's shades (where Karkat would fit in terms of zodiac signs, his abnormal bright red blood putting him out of the pattern) which had been hunted to extinction. So far, no character has been directly associated with this color, with the possible exception of Calliope in regards to her troll-persona.
    • The kids from post-scratch Earth have their own colors that are similar to their corresponding pre-scratch kid's: Jane is cyan, Roxy is pink, Dirk is orange, and Jake is dark green.
    • The kids' sprites also have associated colours - Nannasprite is cyan, Jaspersprite is magenta, Davesprite is orange, and Jadesprite is dark green. In other words, exactly the same as the post-scratch kids' colours, except Jaspersprite's, which is slightly different to Roxy's.
    • Calliope is light grey and green; her brother Caliborn is dark grey and red. In the event of one "predominating" over the other, they use the other's red/green for their text.
    • Prospitians are coloured completely white, while Dersites are black.
    • The Midnight Crew are associated with black with red accents.
    • The Felt have green skin and wear green suits apart from Snowman, and all fifteen of them wear uniquely-colored/numbered hats that each correspond to a billiards ball. Additionally, Doc Scratch has a penchant for the colour green, and speaks exclusively in white text. And yes, the latter bit is just as annoying as it sounds.
    • Each Aspect has its own color scheme as well. Blood has red and brown, Breath has light blue and teal, Doom has emerald and forest green, Heart has magenta and pink, Hope has yellow and cream, Life has mint and tan, Light has orange and gold, Mind has teal and aqua, Rage has lavender and purple, Space has black and white, Time has red and maroon, Void has midnight blue and black.
  • Irrelevator has three main characters who are stickmen, each one has a diffrent color, the green one has hair and beard, the red one has a baseball cap and the blue one has opaque glasses.
  • In Kiss It Goodbye, Aruka typically wears red and Yukimi often wears green throughout their lives. Those are their eye colors, too, and Yukimi's hair has a greenish tint.
  • Metal Phone Mouse: Every main character is associated with a different colour (respectively, Indigo = Shadow, Maroon = Chip, Orange = Pieman, Chocolate = Brass, Purple = Squiggle, Violet = Eva, Green = Nari, Bronze = Red Tail the Fluffy, white-on-black for the demon, Red = Pandora, Grey = everyone else) which tends to feature highly in their wardrobe and in which all their speech is rendered (making it easier to work out who's talking off-panel).
  • All magicians in Never Satisfied have a unified color to their magic. This shows in their eyes, their familiar's eyes, and in the gemstones they can use as a magic focus. It doesn't affect the powers they have, but it does run in the family.
    • Characters without magic also have color schemes, but these tend more flexible and less saturated.
  • NEXT!!! Sound of the Future: Characters' shading and dialogue boxes are in each character’s signature colour. Every Vocaloid model is associated with a specific colour and the characters of that model have a unique shade. Among the main cast, Hatsune Miku androids like Shine and Tech are teal, Kagamine Rin androids like Roll are orange, and Megpoid androids like Gumiya and Hakase are green.
  • Project 0 as per the characters' buttons on the website. Typically prominent on their outfits as well.
    • Owen: Purple
    • Aatu: Blue
    • Bea: Orange
    • Ciro: Yellow
    • Kareem: Red
    • Veronica: White
    • Noor: Black
  • In Radio Silence, the band members have text bubble color coordination.
    • Matt: Purple
    • Wren: Orange
    • Colbie: Blue
    • Brent: Green
    • Shy: Grey
    • Liz: Gold
  • Sacred Pie uses this briefly when a key character gets cloned. The clones each have a certain facet of his personality and a different coloured hat. The hats are important.
  • Many of Star Impact's characters are associated with one or two specific colors.
  • Unordinary: A character's eye colour and hair often matches the colour of their speech bubbles.
    • John: Black
    • Seraphina: Magenta
    • Arlo: Gold
    • Isen: Orange
    • Blyke: Red
    • Remi: Pink
  • This can be seen in Voodoo Walrus by way of the main cast having certain colors that the artist repeatedly works into their clothes. Orange and green for Grymm, a dull blue and grey for Creep Knight, vibrant blue for Bowler, and purpler for Mirth. This isn't just for clothes, it extends into their word bubbles as well. And many other supporting characters are color coded too. But some colors change with major personality shifts.

    Web Original 
  • Each of the four main characters in Oktober have a color that is associated with them, which makes it easier to keep track of who's entry you are reading. Nick is orange, Natasha is red, Matthias is green, and Smith/Jones is blue. Additionally, side characters seem to have colors that are associated with them as well. Most notably, Daphne is light blue, Midas is blood red or maroon, and Joshua is silver.
  • The Five Powers of Lambda each have their own particular colours. Soleil is black, Krieggarten is gold, Seisen is blue, Casus Belli is green, and Zafiel is red.
  • The cast of Statless and Tactless use different color posts.
    • The colors also relate to the characters to an extent. Soo's character is very rich and her post color is green. Joe is a fiendish jerkass and he's red. Kyle is balanced (and very opposed to Joe) and posts in blue.
  • Super Mario Bros. Z: The Koopa Bros. Made infinitely more amusing when one looks back and realizes who fought who in the first battle against them— particularly Red, Green and Black. The same can be said for the Axem Rangers, though they had one extra member.
  • The Roar of Our Stars: Each character has a unique avatar and color.
  • In his episode on trolling, Mike from Idea Channel disagreed with himself later, so he edited in future Mike as blue, where original recording Mike wore red.
  • The three main characters of 17776 are given different colored text (and, when the reader sees them, bodies) - Nine is red, Ten is green, and Juice is yellow/orange.
  • Regulars on FailRace will usually maintain the same color car across dozens of races in Grand Theft Auto V. Alex (gamertag Casino Royale), who runs the channel, and another user named UltraBlakey95 are collectively known as "Team Orange" as they both primarily use orange vehicles.
  • The three main members of The Runaway Guys each have a main color, often dubbed as their "TRG Color". Emile (Chuggaaconroy) uses red, Tim (NintendoCapriSun) uses green, and Jon (ProtonJon) uses blue.

    Real Life 
  • Most kids have a favorite color that they like their personal belongings to have (like backpacks, lunchboxes, blankets and toys). This usually tones down but still remains into adulthood sometimes in their car color, cell phone case, or favorite outfits and jackets for instance. Siblings will choose different colors to stand out from each other. Parents sometimes invoke this especially with twins to tell them apart when they're still young.

Alternative Title(s): Colour Coded Characters

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Black Falcon

Wait, sorry, I meant Green Falcon.

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