History Main / ColourCodedForYourConvenience

** In the original ''Film/Tron'' the good guys were typically identified by blue lines while the bad guys were identified by red lines.

* In ''{{Ghost Trick}}'', the colour of the ghost world varies from ghost to ghost. With Sissel, it's red, with[[spoiler:Missile]], it's green, and with [[spoiler:Yomiel]], it's blue.

** In a large number of cases, Pokemon in general will ascribe to a certain colour scheme. Fire types tend to be red or orange, Water blue, Poison purple of varying shades, Electric blue or yellow, Ice white or light blue, Ghost grey, Dark black, Dragon blues and blue-greens (at least in part), Ground brown and dusty orange, Rock brown and grey, Normal brown or beige, Grass green, and Steel grey. Psychic, Fighting and Fairy are more varied in general, and Bug types often have colourful shells or wings, as real-life arthropods do, thought there are a lot of red, orange, and green Bug types, they aren't prevalent enough.

* In ''FanFic/TheGodEmpressOfPonykind'', conversation in [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]] is done in color, to identify who is speaking: Celestia/ TheEmperor speaks in gold, [[ManipulativeBastard Tzeentch]] in blue, [[PlagueMaster Nurgle]] in olive, [[TheVamp Slaanesh]] in purple, [[BloodKnight Khorne]] in red, and Isha in green. Luna is not powerful enough to have a significant Warp presence, so her text is not colored.

** War Plan Blue: [[spoiler:The US. No, not a prospective revival of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar the Confederacy]] - these just covered normal preparation actions to be undertaken in peacetime. In all the war plans, the US was code-named "Blue".]]

*** Dark Blue for Security Forces[[note]]Inspired by the black berets of the Army Rangers, who trained a cadre of Security Policemen during the VietnamWar.[[/note]]

** War Plan Black: [[spoiler:War against Germany, specifically the German Empire. The most well-known involved a WorldWarOne WhatIf where France was defeated by Germany in Europe and the latter attempted to seize French possessions in the Caribbean or launch an attack on the East Coast - the plan involved heavy mining of the seas and concentrating the Atlantic fleet in New England.]]

** War Plan Gray: [[spoiler:Two different ones, depending on the time period. The first was a military venture in Central America or the Caribbean - not that unlikely given American intentions of keeping the Western Hemisphere under its lead (and out of Europe's) goes as far back as the Monroe Doctrine. The second was for an invasion of the Portuguese Azores during the early part of WorldWarTwo - Portugal was officially neutral but there were fears that Salazar might allow Nazi Germany to use the islands as a base to launch raids in the Atlantic.]]

** War Plan Orange: [[spoiler:War with Japan. This was the most extensively developed and redeveloped of the color war plans. While the main basis of it (mustering up the Pacific Fleet and confronting the IJN head-on with a large surface navy before moving on the Home Islands) became outdated with technological advances in submarines and especially aircraft carriers (before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor), elements of this plan was eventually incorporated into the US's strategy in WorldWarTwo, such as the large submarine fleet that was to blockade the Home Islands (originally to buy time for the Pacific Fleet to mobilize) and not straying too far from land-based (the "island-hopping" strategy).]]

** War Plan Red-Orange: [[spoiler:A two-front war with both the British and Japanese Empires, which became a concern after two formed an alliance prior to WorldWarOne. It was considered a nightmare scenario for the US, as both would have brought very formidable navies on both oceans, and the planners concluded that fighting both aggressively at the same time would have strained resources too much and so felt it would be better to focus attacks on one while playing defense on the other - it further concluded that focusing on the Atlantic would be better. This idea remained when the US entered WorldWarTwo with the Germany-first strategy.]]

* During the early 20th Century, the United States developed a series of war plans to outline what would be done in the event of a war with other countries. Some plans were more developed than others, depending on how likely the YanksWithTanks thought war with that country was. Each belligerent was referred to by color for both brevity and diplomatic considerations - in time the plans themselves were referred to by color. For fun, try to guess who the plan involved:

** War Plan Blue: [[spoiler:The US. No, not a prospective revival of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar the Confederacy]] - these just covered normal preparation actions to be undertaken in peacetime.]]

** War Plan Yellow: [[spoiler:War in China. Not necessarily ''with'' China (whether the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-Shek, the Communists under Mao Zedong, or any of the warlords running amok); rather it concerned itself mainly with defending American interests in Beijing and Shanghai.]]

* In ''Film/KamenRiderXSuperSentaiSuperheroTaisen'', ''KamenRiderOOO'' will lend his medals to the [[Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger Gokaigers]], allowing them to transform into OOO's combo forms. With one exception, the general coloring of OOO's combos match up with the Gokaigers' colors (red, blue, yellow, green, and white [standing in for [[ChromeChampion silver]]]), and they transform accordingly. The exception is Gokai Pink, who instead gets the ''purple'' combo.

** black holes= black * On military ships, the colors of pipes indicate their contents

** Also, each of the [[ElementalRockPaperScissors 17 types]] has a color associated with it:
*** Jade=[[BigCreepyCrawlies Bug]]
*** Black=[[CastingAShadow Dark]]
*** Indigo=[[OurDragonsareDifferent Dragon]]

*** Pink=[[PsychicPowers Psychic]]

* The creators of ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' selected their color-palette from the three colors of Mardi Gras (gold, green, purple). Scenes immersed in nature were done in green, positively-toned scenes indoors or in town were gold-toned, and scenes of dark magic used purple: of the three, the color least common in nature.

* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'': Blue = safe (Andy's room; Butterfly room; [[spoiler: conveyor belt off switch]]); red = unsafe ([[spoiler:Lotso; the incinerator]]); SicklyGreenGlow = corrupted ([[spoiler:the snack machine "gambling den"; the Dumpster]]).

* In ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', the developers tell us that anyone who is colored [[SicklyGreenGlow green]], they are truly evil.

** There's also the colours associated with each race or nation, used in their graphics, ships, transporters, banners or on star charts (the latter is expanded on greatly in tie-in materials).
*** The Federation is a rich blue (on star charts and their seal and warp plasma).
*** The Klingons are red (on star charts and their banner, graphic displays and ship controls, warp plasma, and transporter effect).
*** Romulans are deep green (on star charts, banners and display graphics, their warp plasma, and their transporter effect).
*** Cardassians are yellow-ochre or pink (both colours were used for their weapons - pink in their first few appearances, later yellow, their transporter is yellow-ochre; on star charts, they're either yellow or pink).
*** The Dominion is purple (their warp plasma, on star charts; their graphics are purple and green).

** The eleventh doctor's bow tie changes color depending on whether the adventure takes place in the future(red) or the past(blue).

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* The villains of the show "Cheat Commandos" from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' are actually named Blue Laser.
* The creators of ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' selected their color-palette from the three colors of Mardi Gras (gold, green, purple). Scenes immersed in nature were done in green, positively-toned scenes indoors or in town were gold-toned, and scenes of dark magic used purple: of the three, the color least common in nature.

* The Québec student strikers of 2012 adopted the Red Square as their symbol against the 75% hike in tuition and in favor to the strike. As it gained in popularity both in the student body and the general population, other factions in the conflict tried to promote their own squares, with varied levels of success...
** Some students wore the Green Square to show support for the hike and taking a stand against the strike;
** Other students wore the Blue Square, which meant they were against the hike, but were also against the strike;
** At some point, columnist Richard Martineau suggested the Yellow Square, which meant that you would favor a ''smaller'' hike. It never caught on. In fact, the Yellow Square already had a significance before (though perhaps not publicized enough) as anti-nuclear stand in the province of Québec.
** As the conflict dragged on, some parents and teacher adopted the White Square, urging both the government and student unions to compromise with a moratorium on tuition hikes, until such time as we could discuss the matter with cooler heads.
** When the government passed bill 78, which would restricts freedom of assembly, protest and picketing, especially on or near university grounds, writer Normand Baillargeon suggested the Black Square (to be worn WITH the Red Square) in protest of the violent repression suffered by student strikers since the beginning of the conflict, and as a symbol of grief over the death of democracy.
* This is quite common for any metropolitan mass transit system that's extensive enough to have multiple lines, although it's a toss-up whether the residents of a particular city call the lines by their colors or their actual names (assuming they have other names; some just pick a colour and use that as the name).

* Many screwdriver or plier sets have the handles color-coded by tool type (for example, all flathead screwdrivers will have yellow handles while all Phillips heads will be blue) so that you can tell what type of tool it is at a glance.
* The [=PC99=] standard gave us the color-coded ports and plugs we all use today to tell the difference between identical plugs that go into identical sockets with different uses (e.g. headphone and microphone jacks, old PS/2 keyboards and mice, etc.).
* Similarly, electronic components are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_color_code color coded]] so electricians can tell their power and tolerances at a glance.
* [[http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/carriers/rainbow.asp US aircraft carrier flight deck personnel]]. "Explosive Ordnance Disposal" -- [[RedShirt Red]]. Ouch. As if it didn't sound dangerous already.

* Pre-Communist political offices were identifiable by color, the pattern on their uniform, and the fanciness of their {{Nice Hat}}s.
* Most sports teams have one or two colors associated with their logos/jerseys. In international competitions (World Cup, Olympics), it almost always overlaps with National Colors.
** In soccer matches, however, this is oftentimes subverted. Italy, for example, plays in all blue, although Italy's National Colors are Green-White-Red. Germany's classic dress is white shirt, black shorts, and white socks, whereas the National Colors are Black-Red-Gold.
*** In these cases, there's usually a historical reason behind it. Italy's national team wears blue because blue was the color of the House of Savoy, who ruled Italy when the team was first put together. The same is true of the Netherlands - their flag is Red-White-Blue, while their teams' kit is orange because they are ruled by the House of Orange. Germany's white and black outfit is derived from the Prussian flag of the 19th century.

* Cigarette packaging ''tends'' to follow a general color-coding scheme, although it's far from universal. About the only thing that's consistent across most brands is that if it's in a green or predominently green pack, it's menthol.
** Red = full flavor
** gold or blue = lights
** silver or white = ultra lights
** green = menthols
* On military ships, the colors of pipes indicate their contents
** red = fire main (sprinklers/fire hose)
** blue = potable water
** yellow = fuel oil/gasoline
** green = salt water
* Artificial flavoring in the U.S. tends to follow a set pattern somewhere between this and TastesLikePurple for things that are flavored, such as Popsicles, fruit drinks, or candy.
** Red = Cherry (sometimes Watermelon)
** Pink = Strawberry
** [[ShapedLikeItself Orange]] = [[CaptainObvious Orange]]
** Yellow = Lemon or, less frequently, Banana (occasionally Pineapple)
** Green = Lime or Mint, very occasionally used for Apple.
** Blue = Blueberry or Blue Raspberry.
** Purple = Grape
** White = Pineapple, Coconut
* Fruits change colour depending on how ripe they are. This is thought to be why humans evolved colour vision in the first place. Additionally, recent studies have shown that women see far more different shades of color than men (where a man will see "beige," women will see beige, tan, bone, ecru, and several other shades that men don't). They believe this is a holdover from the old caveman days, when women were the gatherers and had to differentiate between "safe to eat" red berries and "highly poisonous" red berries.
* Dairy products:
** In the US, Whole milk is almost always red. 1% milk is usually light blue, 2% dark blue. Skim milk is usually yellow. Half-and-half is usually purple. Chocolate milk is brown.
** In New Zealand (the world's largest milk exporter), whole milk is dark blue, low fat is light blue, and skim is green. Non-homogenised milk is silver, calcium-fortified milk is yellow or orange, and cream is red. Like the US, Chocolate milk is brown.
*** Even ''cheese'' is color-coded in New Zealand - cheddar ("tasty") cheese is red, colby is yellow, edam is blue, mild cheese is light green, and mozarella is dark green.
* Some types of medication, particularly those that are to be taken on an on-again[=/=]off-again schedule like some birth control pills. It's easier for the person to take a pill every day than to try to remember how many days they have already skipped[=/=]still need to skip so the meds are packaged with placebos for the skip week; those pills are a different color to the actual pill.
* Most stars:
** O-type stars= blue
** B-type stars= bluish-white
** A-type stars= white
** F-type stars= yellowish-white
** G-type stars= yellow
** K-type stars= orange
** M-type stars= red
** brown dwarfs= maroon
** neutron stars= purple
** black holes= black
* Horse racing:
** 1= red
** 2= white
** 3= blue
** 4= yellow
** 5= green
** 6= black
** 7= orange
** 8= pink
** 9= turquoise
** 10= purple
** 11= gray
** 12= lime
** 13= brown
** 14= maroon
* If you take a look at your local hardware store in the powertools section, you'll likely notice a whole rainbow of colours, usually associated with their own brand:
** Ryobi=Neon green
** Bosch=Dark green
** Black & Decker=Orange
** Dewalt=Yellow
** Cotech=Blue
* Some high schools colour code the uniform shirts based on student's ages [[http://www.mercy.wa.edu.au/enrolments/uniforms.htm]]. See also the ''Degrassi'' example above.
* Many [[GangBangers street gangs]] have one or more colors associated with that particular gang. For example, the Crips are blue and black and the Bloods are red and black. This can lead to [[HilarityEnsues hilarity]] of the deadly type for people who wander into gang territory wearing a rival gang's colors, intentionally or not.
* International auto racing, prior to the rise of sponsorship liveries in TheSeventies, although national colours are often [[GrandfatherClause still incorporated]] into these liveries, and are also usually offered on road cars.
** Red = Italy. still used by Ferrari in FormulaOne)
** Light Blue = France
** Gray or silver = Germany, still used by Mercedes Benz and Audi.
** Dark Green = UK, usually called British Racing Green, used by Aston Martin in sportscar racing, and Caterham in F1.
** White stripes over Dark Blue = USA, often still available as an option on sports cars.
** White and red = Japan
** Yellow - Belgium
* Many space-filling or ball-and-stick models of certain molecules will have certain elements given a specific color. Here are some examples:
** Hydrogen = white
** Carbon = black
** Nitrogen = blue
** Oxygen = red
** Fluorine = dark green
** Sulfur = yellow
** Chlorine = light green
* One aversion in real life that's still played straight in fiction: Gemstones. While in real life, most gems have the ability to be a variety of colors, in fiction, they still follow a pretty set pattern:
** Diamonds = Clear/White
** Emeralds = Green
** Rubies = Red
** Sapphires = Blue
** Topaz = Yellow
** Amethyst = Purple
* The "hoods" (more like shawls) worn by US college faculty at graduation ceremonies are doubly color-coded: the velvet collar's color indicates either Doctoral status or the wearer's field of study, while the interior fabric displays where the faculty member's own education took place.
** In other countries, there's a whole world of other complexities - see the Other Wiki's page on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress_in_the_United_Kingdom Academic Dress in the UK]] for example.
* Electrical components such as resistors and transformers generally follow a (rather complex) color-coding scheme - the more bands it has, in the case of the Resistors, the higher ohms its resistance is, and the individual colors are multipliers for the base number, [[http://www.elexp.com/tips/clr_code.gif as seen here.]]
* Most moist snuff brands follow a certain pattern on their labels:
** red (ranging into brown) for "Natural" or "Straight" flavors
** green for Wintergreen flavors
** blue for Mint and "Ice" flavors
*** One brand even has a "cool wintergreen" packaged with a bluish-green label. The fruit flavors offered by some companies tend to break this a little.
* Women in the Kenyan Samburu tribe wear red clothing if they aren't married and blue clothing if they are.
* [[http://www.news.com.au/technology/google-reveals-top-secret-data-centers/story-e6frfro0-1226498166064 The vast networks of pipes in the]] [[{{Website/Google}} Google]] datacenters are colour-coded, similar to the shipboard pipe example above. Similar schemes are probably in use all around the world, with network and power cables as well as pipes. Anywhere there's a mess of cables or wires, someone is probably going to make use of this concept to help make things easier to manage.
* International political movements are often associated with specific colors. Although it can vary from country to country and from time period to time period, broadly speaking:
** Red: the color of blood, passion, and revolution, Red is usually associated with populist, radical political movements. Most commonly associated with Marxism and Communism.
*** There were also the famous Red Shirts of Garibaldi's volunteer army.
** White: color of purity and peace. Nowadays mostly associated with Pacifism.
*** Going back to the 18th century, White was often associated with loyalist or monarchist factions during political revolutions, e. g. the white cockade of the Jacobites, and the white badges and flags used by Royalists during the French Revolution and by the "Whites" of the Russian Civil War. Hence, White becomes associated with the reigning monarch, and Red with the rebels seeking to overthrow that monarch. However, this is in part coincidence, result of the Bourbon dynasty's long association with the colour white (going back to Henry IV's white plume) and the fact that Czarist armed forces had been using white flags with a blue saltire since the middle ages.
** Black: Politically, the color Black has a long association with anonymity, lawlessness, and "non personhood." As far back as the Middle Ages, "black knights" carried no family crest or color on their shields, symbolizing that they had no allegiances (or simply, that they preferred to conceal their identities). In the 19th Century Black was adopted by Anarchist groups, as the color of individualism and the rejection of traditional law and government. Anarchists also use Black in conjunction with Red.
*** Black is also the colour of the vestments of Catholic clerics and by extension is associated with Catholic and Christian Democratic parties in various European countries.
*** Black is also a colour strongly associated with Fascism, from the proverbial black shirts of Mussolini's followers and e. g. their British imitators, to the black uniforms of the German [=SS=].
** Brown: After World War One, Brown became the color of Nazism. Nazis party officials and most of its organisations (except the [=SS=] and some of youth organisations) wore brown uniforms - the first ones had been surplus army shirts intended for use on the Turkish fronts (note that the regular German and Austrian army uniforms in the war had been in different shades of grey). The Nazi party central office in Munich was known as the Brown House.
** Green: color associated with nature, Green is the color of most Environmentalist movements.
*** Green is also associated with Islam in many places.
*** In Ireland it is often seen as the colour of Nationalism and Catholicism, as opposed to Orange, the colour of Loyalism and Protestantism.
** Gold: the "color of money," associated with Free Market Capitalism, and sometimes, by extension, Libertarianism.
** Purple: In modern European politics, Purple is usually associated with coalition governments, being a combination of Red (radical left) and Blue (traditional conservative).
*** Purple is often associated with royalty, as it was the color worn by Roman Emperors. By extension, Purple was also associated with the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.
** Pink: associated with LGBT movements.
*** In Organized Labour circles, Pink has negative connotations, being a lighter shade of Red and therefore associated with moderate or "soft" socialism. The epiphet "pinko" was coined during the first RedScare of the 1920's to imply a person had socialist leanings without actually being a member of any organization or political group.
* In American politics, Blue is the color associated with the Democratic Party (liberal), Red with the Republican Party (conservative), and Green with Independent or Third-Party candidates. Hilariously, this color scheme is completely arbitrary: it was invented by the NBC broadcast network during their coverage of the extremely-close 2000 Presidential election purely as a means of keeping things straight on their electoral map. But it's been pretty much adopted by the political parties involved ever since (you'll often hear of a solid Republican or conservative state referred to in discourse as a "Red State", etc.). Even more hilariously, this color scheme is almost the exact opposite of that of European politics, where Blue is associated with conservative movements and Red with social democratic, socialist and communist ones.
* In Europe, where most of the older flags are just of one or two colours, republican and democratic movements had a tendency to use striped tricolours as their flags. The first such example was probably the flag of the Dutch provinces rebelling against Spanish rule in the 16th century, which is used to this day and is striped horizontally red (originally orange), white and blue. The abortive Belgian Revolution of 1788 used the colours black, yellow and red. The French Revolution combined the red and blue of the city of Paris with the white of the Bourbon dynasty, resulting in the vertically striped blue, white and red flag of today. As the revolutionary armies moved beyond the borders of France, they founded new republics with different tricolors, for instance green, white and red in northern Italy (now the national flag of all Italy) and green, yellow and red in the Helvetian Republic (when that became Switzerland again, they reintroduced their old bicoloured flag). Other such "radical" tricolors were the black, red and gold (yellow) flag of the German revolution of 1848 and the red, yellow and purple (claret) flag of the Spanish Republic used until it was crushed in the Spanish Civil War.
* Anatomical diagrams traditionally use red for oxygenated blood vessels, blue for deoxygenated blood vessels, yellow for nerves, and green for lymphatic vessels. Can give rise to RealityIsUnrealistic, as some would-be med students take these colors literally and are later shocked to learn that ''actual'' deoxygenated blood is maroon, lymphatic fluid is clear-to-milky, and nerves are white.
* Sweetener packets for coffee and tea are often color coded: white for white sugar, brown for brown or raw sugar, pink for saccharin (ie. Sweet-N-Low), blue for aspartame (Equal), and yellow for sucralose (Splenda). Newly-developed Stevia-based sweeteners are usually coded green, and monksfruit-based sweeteners are coded orange.
* While United States dollar banknotes/bills are all green, most currencies make each banknote of a different color to help distinguish them.
** Blue = 20 Euro, $5 Canadian, $10 Australian, $10 New Zealand
** Brown = $100 Canadian
** Green = 100 Euro, $20 Canadian, $100 Australian, $20 New Zealand
** Grey = 5 Euro
** Orange = 50 Euro, $5 New Zealand
** Pink = $5 Australian
** Purple = 500 Euro, $10 Canadian, $50 New Zealand
** Red = 10 Euro, $50 Canadian, $20 Australian, $100 New Zealand
** Yellow = 200 Euro, $50 Australian
** When Australia and New Zealand decimalised their currencies in 1966-67, replacing one old pound with two new dollars, the colors on the pound banknotes were reused on their dollar equivalents to ease the transition. For example, the blue £5 notes in each country were replaced with blue $10 notes.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Nimona}}'' the good knight Goldenloin wears a majestic gold and white armor while villain Blackheart dons black and red. (In reality, their roles are not that simple.)
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' gives us an in-universe example, with Lt Shodan's suspicion that a bunch of new recruits charging ahead and blazing away with their guns were prevented from shooting one another only because they were [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-05-19 wearing the same color]].

* Penelope [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1437 vomiting a rainbow]] mixed with CheshireCatGrin and LosingYourHead.
* Once the game in ''Webcomics/LarpTrek'' begins in earnest, out-of-character panels have a grey background while in-character panels have colored backgrounds. Each character is eventually given a single, consistent color, too.
* ''Webcomic/TheBlackBrickRoadOfOZ'''s witches all have a corresponding color which they seem to share with the Country they rule (for example Pepper's color is yellow and Bastille's is violet).

* In the SuperMario series, you can tell {{Palette Swap}}ped enemies/generic species behavior based on color:
** The Lumas: White (Luma), Black (Polari), Purple (Lubba), Red (flying), Orange (Co-star), Yellow (launch star), Green (green star), Blue (Lumalee Lumabop), and Pink (Hungry Luma).
** Koopa Troopas and Paratroopas: Green (walk in straight line for Troopas, hop aimlessly for Paratroopas), Red (walk back and forth for Troopas, fly up or down or side to side for Paratroopas), Blue (kicks shells), and Yellow (flashes).
** Goombas: Brown (on dry land), Blue (in caves), and Gray (in castles).
** Piranha Plants: Green (hides in pipes when Mario/Luigi is near it) and Red (comes out of pipes even when Mario/Luigi is near it, but will not come out if Mario/Luigi is on top of it).
** Cheep Cheeps: Red (faster, can jump out of water) and Gray (was changed to green in ''All Stars'', slower, always in water).
** Bros.: Lime (Hammer), Blue (Boomerang), Red (Fire), Green (Sledgehammer), Purple (AFHB), and Orange (Sumo).
* ''DynastyWarriors'': Shu - Green, Wei - Blue, Wu - Red, Jin - Teal.

* In ''VideoGame/ResonanceOfFate'', weapons, damage displays, and damage is displayed in either blue or red, depending on if they do Scratch or Direct Damage, respectively.
* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' and its [[VideoGame/BioShock2 sequel]] color-code the security turrets, bots, and cameras: red ones are hostile and green ones have been hacked to be on your side. The lights on the Big Daddies' suits' portholes are similar: yellow light means it's neutral, green means it's hypnotized, and red means it's hostile.
* ''DonkeyKong64'' was practically built around this idea. If anything important pertained to a certain character, one simply had to look at the color to figure out to whom the task belongs. For Donkey Kong, it was yellow; there was red for Diddy, blue for Lanky, purple for Tiny, and green for Chunky.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': Anything that can be interacted with (chests, switches, quest items) has a green light or aura. Considering Pandora is a barren wasteland, greenery really stands out.

* ''SkiesOfArcadia'' has its six [[WeirdMoon oddly colored Moons]] that also correspond with [[ElementalRockPaperScissors elements]], as well as the continent under it's environment:
** Green Moon - [[GreenThumb Nature]]. Its continent is made mostly of [[{{Arcadia}} lush, quick-recovering forests.]]
** Red Moon - [[PlayingWithFire Fire]]. Its continent is a [[ShiftingSandLand desert.]]
** Purple Moon - [[AnIcePerson Ice]]. Its continent is [[SlippySlideyIceWorld a barren land of snow and ice.]]
** Blue Moon - [[BlowYouAway Wind]] and [[MakingASplash Water]]. Its continent is often struck by fierce wind and has many watery environments.
** Yellow Moon - [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]]. Thunderstorms occur every day in its continent.
** Silver Moon - [[YinYangBomb Life and Death.]] Nothing notable happens in the world below, [[spoiler:except a gigantic whirlpool know as the Vortex hiding the civilization's sunken continent.]]
* In ''VideoGame/WarioWorld'', the 8 treasure chests and their corresponding buttons are ColorCodedForYourConvenience. The 5 colors for the Spritelings also count.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has certain colors corresponding to Locations, Elements, Races etc. that are all aligned.
** Green - [[LostWoods Forest]] / [[GreenThumb Forest]] or [[BlowYouAway Wind]] / [[TreeTopTown Kokiri, Koroks, or Deku]] / Farore and [[TheHero Courage, Link]]
** Red - [[DeathMountain Mountain]] / [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] / [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gorons]] / Din and [[BigBad Power, Ganon]]
** Blue - [[UnderTheSea Lake]] / [[MakingASplash Water]] or [[AnIcePerson Ice]] / [[OurElvesAreBetter Zoras]] / Nayru and [[DamselInDistress Wisdom, Zelda]]
** Orange - [[ShiftingSandLand Desert]] / [[SoulPower Spirit]] / [[AmazonBrigade Gerudo]]
** Purple - [[BigBoosHaunt Graveyard]] / [[CastingAShadow Shadow]] or [[DishingOutDirt Earth]] / [[{{Ninja}} Sheika]]
** Yellow - [[TheKingdom Hyrule]] / [[HolyHandGrenade Light]] / [[{{AmbiguouslyHuman}} Hylians]]
* ''GuildWars'' color-codes everything. Professions are color coded, and skills for that profession have icons of predominantly that color, and the bosses of that profession have an aura of that color, and so on. PvP and the factions in Factions use the classic red vs blue setup. In some PvP maps, they even color-code the objectives to group them!

* In the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series, [[TheFederation Terran Confederation]] fighters are generally painted in bright colors, typically silvers and greens for the first two games and bright grey for the remaining (except for the Excalibur and Dragon superfighters, which have dark-colored hulls). [[TheEmpire Kilrathi]] fighters are generally ochres and darker colors. And [[TheAlliance Border Worlds Militia]] fighters are gunmetal grey.
* In the ''{{Tomba}}'' series, Items are split into 3 colors in the select item menu: Green, Blue, and Pink. Green Items are equippable weapons and clothes. Blue items are regular items such as the Buckets and lunch boxes. Pink Items are special automatic use items such as the Evil Pig Bags and the Treasure Chest Keys that can only be used by talking to the right NPC or doing something in the right location.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfGoo'', different species of goo balls have different colour. It'll be difficult to tell them apart without this.
* In ''TraumaCenter'', there is a type of GUILT called Tetarti. It can come in groups of 3 with [[RuleOfThree three]], [[FourIsDeath four]], or five colors. Their color is shown when they appear and then they turn gray. To kill them, you must inject each one with the serum [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience that has the same color]].

* ''SonicTheHedgehog'':
** Each of the characters' fur/feather/body color tends to follow them everywhere. An interesting case is Shadow, whose fur is Black with Red highlights: he is usually associated with Blacks and Grays or Dark Red, but for some reason, his attacks are all orange.
** In the game ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', the twelve playable characters are divided into four teams of three members each. Each team consists of a speed character, a flying character, and a power character. Most obstacles are color-coded to tell the player which team member is intended to clear that obstacle with blue for speed, yellow for flying, and red for power. These colors are based on the fur colors of the "main" team featuring Sonic as the speed member, Tails as the flying member, and Knuckles as the power member.
* In ''{{Bureaucracy}}'', all villains and obstacles will be denoted by [[AnyoneYouKnow whatever you told the game your least favourite colour is]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' games have red items for power, blue for score, green for {{Smart Bomb}}s (except in 10 and 11, where bombs were tied to power, and green items increased the value of blue items), and purple for extra lives.
** After {{Mountain of Faith}}, red fairies give you power, and blue fairies give you points.
* The characters in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' work for two companies ''called'' RED and BLU [''sic'']. It's no coincidence that the Administrator and her assistant both wear ''purple''. Even with all the unlockable weapons and modifiable accessories, the game has never allowed you to wear the colors of the opposite team (not counting disguised Spies).
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' features dwarves that are different colors depending on their jobs, the result in your main meeting room being a mess of brown, white, grey, blue, etc. smiley faces.
* ''GearsOfWar'' tends to give the [=COGs=] blue lights on their armor and the Locusts red.

* In ''[[FiftyCentBloodOnTheSand 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand]]'', ammo pickups are colour-coded based on the weapon type--blue ammo is for close-range weapons, yellow is for machine guns, and red is for special weapons like snipers and rocket launchers. The ''enemies'' you fight are also colour-coded in this way to tell you what kind of weapons they're equipped with.
* Creator/{{Cactus}} and Mr. Podunkian's game ''[[http://cactusquid.blogspot.com/2009/11/dungeon.html Dungeon]]'' uses a simple system for its {{Retraux}} graphics. The player, the walls, and all harmless decor are white. Deadly objects and enemies are red.
* The platform game ''[[http://vacuumflowers.com/star_guard/ Star Guard]]'', also with {{Retraux}} graphics, uses simple colors as well. You and your allies are green. Deadly things are red.
* Doors in the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' series are color-coded based on what weapon the player needs to shoot them with to open them; the standard colors are blue for any weapon, red for missile doors, green for super missile doors, and yellow for power bomb doors. The exceptions are ''Metroid II'' (the game is totally monochrome) and ''Metroid Fusion'' (colored doors work on a security-level system, and open to any weapon once you have the clearance for them).
* In ''VideoGame/RescueOnFractalus'', ace pilots (worth more points than regular pilots) wear purple helmets instead of the usual white. Aliens' heads are green, allowing you to tell apart real pilots and alien impostors. On later levels, however, the aliens get savvy and begin wearing white helmets.
* In ''{{Ghost Trick}}'', the colour of the ghost world varies from ghost to ghost. With Sissel, it's red, with[[spoiler:Missile]], it's green, and with [[spoiler:Yomiel]], it's blue.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'': Arguably, the stark contrast between Tidus (light hair, dark skin, heavy use of yellow and black in his clothing) and Yuna (dark hair, light skin, heavy use of white and blue in her clothing) represents the stark differences between the two.

* In ''VideoGame/PrisonArchitect'', the colour of the prisoners' shirts determine the security level. Grey means minimum security, orange means normal security, and dark orange means high security.
* In Franchise/{{BEMANI}} games, difficulty levels are almost always color-coded.
** ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'': Beginner (Green), Normal (Blue), Hyper (Yellow), Another (Red), ''[[HarderThanHard Black]]'' [[HarderThanHard Another]]
** ''VideoGame/{{DanceDanceRevolution}}'':[[labelnote:note]]The names of difficulties have changed many times throughout the series. These are the current names.[[/labelnote]] Beginner (Blue), Basic (Yellow), Difficult (Red), Expert (Green), Challenge (Purple)
** ''VideoGame/{{GITADORA}}'': Basic (Blue), Advanced (Yellow), Extreme (Red), Master (Purple)
** ''VideoGame/{{jubeat}}'': Basic (Green), Advanced (Yellow), Extreme (Red)
** ''VideoGame/PopnMUsic'': Easy (Blue), Normal (Green), Hyper (Yellow), EX (Red)
** ''VideoGame/ReflecBeat'': Basic (Green), Medium (Yellow), Hard (Red)
** ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'': Novice (Blue), Advanced (Yellow), Exhaust (Red), Infinite (Green)
* In ''VideoGame/PixelDungeon'', the potions follow a strict 1 color = 1 potion type code. Which means that is you have a crimson potion and it is a Potion of Healing, then you can know for sure that all healing potions are crimson and all crimson potions are healing potions
** What makes it not so convenient is that you initially don't know which color is which effect, and the association is randomly set for every new game. So maybe now those crimson potions are not Potions of Healing but Potions of Liquid Fire and you should really not drink them.

* In ''VideoGame/CrystalStory'', weapons with stats that are geared towards magic have blue text, while weapons with stats geared towards melee have red text.

* The use of color to distinguish sides is so common that it's easier to note exceptions. For instance, in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogi shogi]], the pieces of the two sides are identical and distinguished by which way they're pointing.

* In a meta example, ''NewHorizon'' requires two differently colored twenty-sided dice. The rulebook labels them White and Black; you can only get criticals on the black dice.
* This is in effect on a general scale in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', insofar as the Inner Sphere is considered. The 'accepted' color pattern for the five great houses is Davion yellow, Kurita red, Steiner blue, Marik purple, and Liao green. Comstar possessed no planets beyond Earth, but were associated with the color white. Later additions to the map, such as the Free Rasalhague Republic and the St. Ives Compact, appear in a shade of teal and a sort of yellow-green, respectively. When the six invading Clans appeared in the Inner Sphere, color variants became necessary. Clans Smoke Jaguar and Steel Viper received dark and light shades of gray, respectively. Clan Wolf space was denoted in brown, and Clan Ghost Bear in white. Clan Jade Falcon, naturally, received a brilliant green, where Clan Nova Cat was shown in black. While these were the 'stereotypical' colors, this did not always apply to the units from those particular factions, however.

* In Creator/{{Stern}}'s ''[[Pinball/SpiderManStern Spider-Man]]'' table, the villains' targets and indicators are color coded for each one -- green for the Green Goblin, yellow for Sandman, dark blue for Venom, and red for Dr. Octopus.

* ''Pinball/{{Indianapolis 500}}'' uses orange, yellow, blue, and green to distinguish between the four main shots, assigning an opposing racer and a set of game modes to each color.

* [[KoreanPopMusic K-pop]] group Rainbow has seven members, each corresponding one of the colors of the rainbow.
* Japanese idol group Music/MomoiroCloverZ wears different colors for each members and match to their gimmicks, also acts an shout to Franchise/SuperSentai.

* Used in ''[[JohnCWright Orphans of Chaos]]''. When using her higher senses, Amelia can see the utility of nearby objects to her or someone else by how brightly they glow with a white light.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}} by Diana Wynne Jones in ''TheToughGuideToFantasyland'', wherein she explained that a GenreSavvy character can always identify which characters are (or will turn out) good, evil, traitorous, possessing magical powers, or lost royal heirs upon first meeting them by the color of their hair or eyes (or combination thereof).

* In ''DragonridersOfPern'', the dragons are visually distinguishable by gender and caste by their color. Additionally, many of the disciplines have a distinctive color that members of the guildhall wear. Miners, crafters, harpers, and healers each have a distinctive uniform color, with further variations in tone for apprentices, journeyman, and masters.

* In ''{{Dragonlance}}'', the Towers of Sorcery actually enforce this trope. White represents good, Black evil, and Red neutral. This is partly because the world's history has shown a need for balance between these moral axes. Extremes of corruption and piety have brought ruin to the world.
** Subverted in one ''Dragonlance'' short story. A knight slays what he thinks is a white dragon, which are AlwaysChaoticEvil. It turns out, however, that the dragon in question was an albino silver dragon (silver dragons are AlwaysLawfulGood).
* There was a series by Garth Nix called ''Literature/TheSeventhTower'' featuring a caste system based on the rainbow; the more powerful a particular color in the society's magic system, the higher the rank of the corresponding caste. Everyone owned a crystal with which they could perform light-based magic; any individual could use colors and visit floors of the complex (in which the entire society lived) equal to or lesser than their own rank, but needed special dispensation to go higher in the pecking order without actually going to the trouble of earning an increase in social station. In the lowest floors was a caste of servants who weren't given a color at all, who were regarded as being not wholly dissimilar to lepers.
* In ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', the Weasley twins describe to Harry one of their inventions - a Puking Pastille. Biting its orange end will make you vomit, and biting its purple end will make it stop.
* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books Tonks favours her hair bright pink (she can change her appearance at will). In the film of ''Order of the Phoenix'' it was changed to purple because the filmmakers had already associated the colour pink with Umbridge. Interestingly in the books Umbridge didn't wear as much pink as she does in the film though it was obviously done to emphasize the TastesLikeDiabetes effect.
* Most religions in the ''Literature/{{Liavek}}'' SharedWorld anthologies are identified by color: red for the [[BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil Way of the Twin Forces]], black for the Kin of One Path, white for the [[OmnicidalManiac Church of Truth]], green for the [[MilesToGoBeforeISleep House of Responsible Life]], and brown for the Pardoners. There are two more color-coded religions -- blue and gold -- that have been exiled from Liavek, and one non-colored religion, the Way of Herself. The clergy of any religion are almost always called (Color) Priests.

* ''WallStreet: Money Never Sleeps''. All of the characters wear suits in morally ambiguous shades of grey. The villain, Bretton James, wears a demonic red suit.
* In ''RebelWithoutACause'', the color red is used often as a motif. For example, Judy's coat at the beginning of the movie, Jim's jacket, one of Plato's socks, etc.
* GuillermoDelToro[='s=] vision for ''Film/TheHobbit'' included [[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/07/110207fa_fact_zalewski?currentPage=9 eight color-coded "seasons"]] (middle of third paragraph).
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'': Blue = safe (Andy's room; Butterfly room; [[spoiler: conveyor belt off switch]]); red = unsafe ([[spoiler:Lotso; the incinerator]]); SicklyGreenGlow = corrupted ([[spoiler:the snack machine "gambling den"; the Dumpster]]).

* In ''Film/LogansRun'', the people who lived in the city wore clothes that matched their ages and the color of their life clocks. The sandmen, who were essentially portrayed as being evil, wore black and gray, even when they were in the gym or at home.
* In ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'', different color lighting was used for each submarine's interior to aid the viewer in quick recognition of which submarine it was and to minimize confusion.
* In the 1920 silent film ''The Mark of Zorro'', Zorro instructs his allies to ride black horses on their night's mission to rescue some unjustly-jailed prisoners. The soldiers that pursue them conveniently all have light-colored horses, making it easy for viewers to keep track of which band of riders is which.
* ''Film/TronLegacy'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCmeQaXuFig uses this to great effect,]] as noted by {{Tobuscus}}.
** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} and {{Justified|Trope}} in that universe, as a character's TronLines indicate their loyalties, position in the system, and [[OnlySixFaces probably act as an identifier]].

* As a general rule, absent any other cues like dialogue or geography (and often enough even with them), a rising sun is depicted as red and a setting sun as orange in all films. This is just a cinematographer's convention that's gone back to the early days of color film.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars'', this tends to overlap with GoodColorsEvilColors, such as the blue and green lightsabers of the Jedi vs. the red of the Sith (as well as their brown robes vs. black robes) and the silver and red of the Rebellion vs. the blue and black ([[LightIsNotGood and white]]) of the Empire.

* In ''Disney/WreckItRalph'', the developers tell us that anyone who is colored [[SicklyGreenGlow green]], they are truly evil.
** Also, whenever Vanellope glitches, she turns shades of blue. However, [[spoiler:[[BigBad Turbo]] ]]turns shades of red when he is forced to glitch out.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Epic}}'': The rich greens and golds of the forest (the use of yellow contributing to the 'warmness'), versus the cold colour palette and mud-browns of Mandrake and his allies. Also, the brightness of the forest, compared to the relatively subdued colours used in the house.
* The prisoners in ''Film/ConAir'': Normal inmates get Blue, the really scary ones get Orange, and the pants-wettingly scary Steve Buscemi gets White.