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California State University, Chico

Colors and Typefaces

Primary Color Palette

Chico Red, Cornerstone Gray, Black, and White comprise Chico State’s primary color palette and represent our longstanding traditions and identity. They should be the dominant colors used in official communications when the project allows for color.


Chico Red should be the most prominent color used for large color fields and works well for headlines, subheads, and pull quotes. Balance and harmony are the goal when using color. Too much red or black can feel harsh, which is why gray and white are acceptable to use.


Be sure to use RGB or Hex color values when working in a digital space, CMYK in a print space, and Pantone values when needing an exact color match with a print vendor.

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    Chico Red

    • PMS 201 C
    • CMYK 0 100 63 31
    • RGB 157 34 53
    • Hex #9D2235
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    Cornerstone Gray

    • PMS Cool Gray 9 C
    • CMYK 50 40 34 17
    • RGB 117 120 123
    • Hex #75787B
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    Black

    • PMS Black 6 C
    • CMYK 0 0 0 100
    • RGB 0 0 0
    • Hex #000000
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    White

    • PMS N/A
    • CMYK 0 0 0 0
    • RGB 255 255 255
    • Hex #FFFFFF

Secondary Color Palette

Although our primary color palette should drive most Chico State communications materials, secondary colors may be used when appropriate. This supporting palette provides creative flexibility, but exercise restraint. They should not become the primary colors for a college, school, center, or department, but should be accents.


These colors have been carefully chosen to complement our primary Chico State colors. Do not introduce other colors into Chico State visual communications materials.

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    Dusk Blue

    • PANTONE™ 303 C
    • CMYK: 100 / 33 / 6 / 84
    • RGB: 4 / 53 / 70
    • HEX: #043546
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    Golden Hour Yellow

    • PANTONE™ 130 C
    • CMYK: 0 / 32 / 100 / 0
    • RGB: 235 / 167 / 14
    • HEX: #EBA70E
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    Orchard Green

    • PANTONE™ 5747 C
    • CMYK: 39 / 19 / 96 / 76
    • RGB: 71 / 76 / 33
    • HEX: #474C21
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    Canyon Stone

    • PANTONE™ Cool Gray 2 C
    • CMYK: 14 / 10 / 8 / 0
    • RGB: 208 / 209 / 201
    • HEX: #D0D1C9
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    Terracotta Orange

    • PANTONE™ 7417 C
    • CMYK: 0 / 82 / 82 / 0
    • RGB: 222 / 87 / 80
    • HEX: #DE5750

Brand Typefaces

The fonts for these brand typefaces are available for free use for all campus users in Adobe Fonts, available through your Adobe Creative Cloud Pro account. Please note that Brothers OT Bold should only be used in all capital letters.

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    Brothers OT

    Display typeface for impact statements and short headlines and subheadlines. System alternative not applicable.

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    Masqualero

    Serif typeface for headlines, subheadlines, and intro text. We suggest using Regular, Demibold, Bold, and Black variations. System alternative: Georgia

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    Georgia

    Serif typeface for body text and captions and is a system font for both Windows and Mac.

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    Gotham

    Sans serif typeface family for use in body text, headlines, subheadlines, and captions. We suggest using the Light, Regular, Medium, Bold, and Black variations. Gotham Narrow variations may also be used. System Alternative: Arial

Typesetting Basics

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    Leading

    Leading, also called line spacing, is the vertical distance between lines of text. In most cases, use leading that is 3-4 points higher than the type point size.

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    Tracking

    Tracking is unified spacing between groups of letters. Tracking can be used stylistically, but in most cases, tracking should be set at the default “0.”

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    Kerning

    Increasing or decreasing the space between individual characters is called kerning. You may find you need to adjust the spacing in some typefaces, such as Brothers OT, to make the space between all letters look even.

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    Line Length for Print

    Reading a long line of type causes fatigue, because the reader must move their head at the end of each line and search for the beginning of the next line. When line lengths are too short, words or phrases are broken up that are generally read as a unit.

Hierarchy

These are only general guidelines; different variations may be created if a particular application/design requires it.

Example layout demonstrating Chico State typography, including headlines, subheads, and body text in different fonts and sizes.

Brothers OT Bold Caps
60pt / -10 leading / variable kerning

Brothers OT Regular Mixed Case
28pt / -10 leading / variable kerning

Masqualero Bold
28pt / -2 leading / 0 kerning

Masqualero Regular
16pt / +4 leading / 0 kerning

Masqualero Black
10pt / +4 leading / +100 kerning

Gotham Book
10pt / +4 leading / -10 kerning

Georgia Regular
8pt / +4 leading / 0 kerning