What Color Schemes Suit a Manufacturing Company Website? How to Make a B2B Site Easier to Read

A manufacturing company’s B2B (business-to-business, or transactions between companies) website must do more than convey a corporate image. Buyers and technical staff also need to find the company’s services, review specifications, and understand how to ask questions. Equipment and product photographs alone may not help visitors organize the information needed before a quotation request, such as whether they have drawings or what quantities they expect. This guide uses a fictional parts manufacturer to show how color can support technical information and inquiries.

Organize the information buyers need before choosing colors

First, arrange the page around three questions: What types of inquiries can be made? What information should the visitor check first? Where can they ask for a quotation or clarification? Drawings, materials, quantities, and desired timing are easier to compare when similar details appear in the same positions under consistent headings. Actual processes, machine capabilities, and service conditions differ by company, so verify them before making claims on a real site.

Give colors clear jobs: a recognizable corporate header, an area for reading specifications, supporting notes, and a primary contact action. Coloring prototype requests blue and recurring orders green does not explain the distinction to visitors who struggle to identify those hues. Label the sections “Prototype inquiries” and “Recurring-order inquiries” and maintain consistent table columns as well.

When every technical detail is emphasized, people may have trouble identifying the important requirements. Keep body text sufficiently dark and reserve stronger color changes for elements with a clear purpose, such as table headings and the main inquiry action.

Example: colors for specifications and quotation inquiries on a parts manufacturer’s site

In this fictional example, the header uses dark blue-teal ■#173D4C with white menu lettering ■#FFFFFF, providing about 11.61:1 contrast. The colors are recorded as HEX values, web color codes consisting of a # sign and six hexadecimal digits. A contrast ratio measures the difference in relative luminance between two adjacent colors. Use pale blue-gray ■#F5F8FA for the page background and white ■#FFFFFF for specification tables and content cards, keeping the larger surfaces restrained.

Set the table’s column headings on light blue-gray ■#E6F0F3 with dark blue-gray text ■#283744. This combination provides about 10.54:1 contrast. For regular explanations, use slate blue-gray ■#334155 against white ■#FFFFFF, providing about 10.35:1. The following table illustrates how to arrange inquiry information; it does not confirm that any particular manufacturer offers these services.

For necessary table boundaries, consider gray ■#738492. It contrasts with a white surface ■#FFFFFF at about 3.86:1 and with the pale header background ■#E6F0F3 at about 3.33:1. Use column headings and spacing as well so the relationships in the table are not communicated by line colors alone.

For the quotation inquiry action, use a dark reddish-brown button ■#9A4E22 with white text ■#FFFFFF labeled “Share specifications and ask a question.” The lettering has about 6.02:1 contrast with the button; against the surrounding pale page background ■#F5F8FA, the button has about 5.65:1 contrast. Present ordinary links to process details as underlined text links to distinguish them from the primary inquiry action.

Check small notes and the quotation form in the finished layout

Using pale gray ■#A9B9C3 for supporting text on the table’s light blue-gray background ■#E6F0F3 gives only about 1.74:1 contrast. Change the text to darker blue-gray ■#526273 and it reaches about 5.40:1 on the same background. This improves the readability of important notes without changing the whole table.

White table surfaces ■#FFFFFF and the surrounding pale page background ■#F5F8FA have only about 1.07:1 contrast. Where a clear boundary matters, add a suitable line or heading. On the inquiry form, do not differentiate “Drawings available” and “No drawings” or expected quantities through color alone. Use labels and helpful examples. If input validation finds an error, identify the field and how to correct it in words, and retain previously entered values wherever practical.

On mobile screens, check that table columns and measurement units do not disappear. For wider tables, consider horizontal scrolling with clear headings or a carefully structured stacked layout. Keyboard focus must also remain visible. Under WCAG 2.2 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), Level AA generally requires at least 4.5:1 contrast for normal-sized text and 3:1 against adjacent colors for essential non-text interface details, including some necessary control boundaries.

HueRoll lets you adjust HEX colors, explore palette suggestions, and compare a selected color against white or black. It cannot compare arbitrary color pairs or automatically determine WCAG AA or AAA compliance. The ratios shown here were calculated separately for opaque solid colors. Check the actual text, tables, and buttons again in the final interface.