Colored Font

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When using modules, I would like to be able to differentiate some of my posts by using a different color of writing.  Please add the ability to have colored Headers and titles. 

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86 Comments
Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@cynthia_carling 

@nataliet 

You can now do what you want color wise with LaTex.  There is nothing else that Canvas needs to do - you just have to (unfortunately) learn LaTex to do it like I illustrated above.  If that is not what you are wanting, then I have misunderstood.

 

NadineVeenstra
Community Novice

Yes, would be awesome to be able to color code.

And the use of deviders would be very helpfull!

ny2
Community Explorer

@Ron_Bowman Thank you for your help w/color coding!! I did it!! Course Modules  SCIENCE.png

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@ny2 

That looks great - I have not done anything yet with my courses because we just finished the semester.  However, I was thinking of making quizzes 1 color, projects another color and homework a third color.  Plus, I do not know how this all looks in the To-Do list or on the calendar(something I just thought of).  

My only concern with doing the color coding would be the accessibility requirements that is out there.  There is probably someone at your school that would be able to tell you if it is okay to use that type of coloration.  

I always have to think about it because it does not affect me in any way.  However, if a student has visual problems some schemes may be worse than others.

bontomasin
Community Explorer

I would agree that Colour coding would be extremely beneficial. I currently use symbols but when we sync to the gradebook symbols transfer as ?????? and then the gradebook is a mess and must be modified by hand. 

Colours could be limited, the box could have coloured borders etc. I work with a number of visually impaired students and there are ways to add colour for the 28 students per class period and still meet the visual needs of the 2-3 students in each class who have an impairment. 

"In addition, ADA Compliance requires that there be contrast between backgrounds and the text of a page, so what colors are available in which combinations is fairly limited. It should be noted that the General Web Design Standards do not recommend white text on a dark background." It does not preclude the use of colour in its entirety. 

 

Web Accessibility guidelines focus on Contrast & Color

Find colors that provide maximum contrast, including enough contrast between content and the background, so that text and non-decorative images are legible for anyone with low vision or color deficiencies.

Best Practices

  • Ratio: Text and interactive elements should have a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1.
  • Color as indicator: Color should not be the only indicator for interactive elements. For example, underline links on hover, or mark a required field with an asterisk.
  • Color blindness: Red/green color blindness is the most common, so avoid green on red or red on green. (Think especially about avoiding using red and green for “bad” and “good” indicators).

In addition, there are recommended colour pallettes and guidelines which could be built in to achieve compliance. https://briteweb.com/tools/ada-compliance-color-palettes/

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@bontomasin 

Thanks for the information and especially the link.  I am becoming more aware of accessibility issues - although I have never had to deal with any students(that I know of - no one has told me they have problems).  Now that I know about using Latex for creating colorized text, I need to make sure that it is readable by everyone.

 

JamesSinger
Community Member

I love this idea! When you're editing the title (for whatever it is, assignment, quiz, text header) you could toggle a "color background" and a palette would appear. The color would then tint the line in the module. It could use grayscale, color-blind accessible, or different kinds of "shading" (dots, lines, etc). 

juhall
Community Explorer

Color-coding as an additional form of differentiation and organization would be an awesome addition. Providing a range of ways for teachers to organize their courses based on the individual needs of their students is accommodation at its best.

jaya_rose
Community Member

Hello,

I too am interested in the use of a color background.  Maybe it's various shades of gray that are acceptable for contrast or a limited color range for us to utilize.

Color will help identify and group various support items within our modules relative to related subject matter, course topic or assignment.

The modules all look the same and become easy to miss.  The emojis are distracting and not necessarily helpful in the same way. 

See all of the comments before mine and let's work this out.  Thank you in advance!

 

hl93
Community Member

Please make it possible to have module titles and bars in different colours, possibly adding thumbnail images to pages in order to make some visual differentiation between 'modules' of different type (e.g. green for welcome, red for content, purple for assessment) or similar, and so that pages have something distinctive to give clues as to content. I am a Course Leader. 

HendrikNahler
Community Member

Different institutions may want to setup their own colour palette for a function like this. The colour palette function could be similar to the one for choosing the colour of the tile for your course.

SheilaSapp
Community Novice

When the students go to modules, I would love for the text headers to be bold and in color. I would also love to be able to indent more than what is currently allowable so that they could be centered.

schoen45
Community Novice

I understand that that text headers were intended to create a “uniform” look to the modules. But uniformity in appearance isn’t always useful. In D2L, we were able to format (bold, underline, color) section headers to allow highlighting and emphasizing various sections within a module.. it wasn’t uniform, but it was useful.

cmeyer42
Community Explorer

@Ron_Bowman 

I love this trick! However, I just tested in the mobile app & it doesn't work. It shows all of the coding - which makes it really messy. Looks great on browsers though.

Please Canvas add the formatting feature to text headers in Modules so that everything will work correctly in your app too.

jennifer_files
Community Explorer

My module house one whole unit of study. Each unit of study is then broken up into different topics. I use the text headers for this. I NEED to be able to color them, so that when my students look at the module it is not so one toned. They need things that stand out. Canvas PLEASE allow for the coloring and formatting of text headers within modules. @jason_paddock 

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@jennifer_files Did you see my post on the second page of posting?  I may be wrong, but what I described sounds like what you want to do.   I am in no way an expert in LaTex - I really have not done anything with it in the last 3 months.  However, using LaTex allows you to color code, provide special formatting, etc to the text headersm - one of which is put the header in a color box if you so desire.  So in a way by Canvas allowing the use of LaTex, they have provided the feature you describe(or at least my interpretation of what you are asking for).

Ron

LisaSwartz
Community Member

You should allow the users to Customize the Title Headers and Modules with Colors.  This is very useful for the elementary setting.  It would be nice to have the days of the week color coordinated so its easier for younger students to understand where to go.  It would also be nice to unpublish title headers.

 

TammyGooden
Community Member

Is there any way to give us access to change the text header colors?  I am a teacher and it would be easier for the students to distinguish module parts if we could add color..

ebjones
Community Member

Adjust colors in Modules for visual learners. The day (text row can be a color to make it easier to see where to go. See my sample as to what I mean. It would be a game changer for me. Set color choices at like 20% transparency so text has high enough contrast.

Image link: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ddpMqZ2yU0_7IBtqyVbuxpqwc60rdUMV/view?usp=sharing

 

Ron_Bowman
Community Champion

@TammyGooden @ebjones -

I believe what you want as I stated above for Jennifer, you should be able to do what you want using LaTex (I agree it would be nicer to have an easy color code to select like you can for coloring in the RCE).  Learning LaTex is not easy, but it is possible to do colorization on headings.  One thing I did notice in revisiting the page is that you type in the code I provided(or copy and paste it in), when you go back to edit it again, the Latex is no longer the same as what I show.

Go to almost the end of the second page in this thread and see my post there for some example code. 

I think what you could do is once you figure out the latex command for what you want for your headings, I would save them in a file and then you just have to copy that latex command in and modify it as necessary.