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The brand colours

The brand colour – Oxford blue

The University is possibly unique in having a colour with which it is associated throughout the world: Oxford blue. The main brand colour is Oxford blue which must match Pantone® 282 (C, U or M depending on whether coated, uncoated or matt coated paper stock is used).

The full colour breakdown used for Oxford blue and the screen colour recommended are shown below.

Pan 282Oxford blue (or Pantone 282)   Process   RGB   HTML
Cyan 100% Red 0 Hex #002147
Magenta 80% Green 33    
Yellow 0% Blue 71    
Black 60%        

Oxford blue or black are the only colours to be used for the brand marks. A palette of colours for other uses is provided below.

The brand marks – black only

In print media where only black is available (such as press advertisement or black and white laser printing) it is acceptable to use the brand in black. However, it is important that the black artwork versions are used, as use of the Oxford blue artwork versions could result in a half-tone grey being produced.

Please note: do not print letterheads in colour on a laser printer or inkjet as the colour of the brand will not be right. Please print in black using the black artwork versions.

The crest colours

Three colours only are used for the crest: Oxford blue, gold and white. The gold is a special metallic ink (or Pantone 872) C, U or M depending on whether coated, uncoated or matt coated paper stock is used.

The full colour (or CMYK) breakdown used for the gold is specified as:

Pan 872Gold (or Pantone 872)   Process
Cyan 0%
Magenta 21%
Yellow 60%
Black 30%

The crest should not be used in screen-based media.

There are no black-only versions of the crest.

Colour palette

There is a palette of preferred colours that have been selected to complement Oxford blue. These colours are for use in graphic elements within designs such as backgrounds, graphic shapes and typography. The 20 colours in the palette are shown below. For practical reasons the colours are shown in full colour only with stated specifications for various media.

Please note where PANTONE® Colours are provided, the appropriate suffix C, U or M (depending on whether the colour is printed on coated, uncoated or matt coated paper stock) should be specified after the number.

In lieu of the colours named in the left-hand column below and elsewhere in this toolkit, you may use the PANTONE® Colours given, the standards for which are as shown in the current edition of the PANTONE® formula guide.

The colours shown throughout this toolkit have not been evaluated by Pantone, Inc. and may not match the PANTONE Colour Standards. PANTONE® is the property of Pantone, Inc. 

Colour name

Process (CMYK)

Screen (RGB)

Pan 279Pantone 279

C=69 M=35 Y=0 K=0

R=72 G=145 B=220

Pan 291Pantone 291

C=36 M=7 Y=2 K=0

R=158 G=206 B=235

Pan 5405Pantone 5405

C=78 M=51 Y=37 K=13

R=68 G=104 B=125

Pan 549Pantone 549

C=65 M=27 Y=25 K=1

R=95 G=155 B=175

Pan 551Pantone 551

C=36 M=12 Y=14 K=0

R=161 G=196 B=208

Pan 562Pantone 562

C=88 M=34 Y=57 K =14

R=0 G=119 B=112

Pan 624Pantone 624

C=55 M=23 Y=43 K=1

R=123 G=162 B=150

Pan 559Pantone 559

C=27 M=7 Y=25 K=0

R=188 G=210 B=195

Pan 576Pantone 576

C=64 M=25 Y=100 K=7

R=105 G=145 B=59

Pan 578Pantone 578

C=30 M=6 Y=51 K=0

R=185 G=207 B=150

Pan 580Pantone 580

C=20 M=4 Y=37 K=0

R=206 G=219 B=175

Pan 583Pantone 583

C=39 M=17 Y=100 K=1

R=170 G=179 B=0

Pan 585Pantone 585

C=16 M=3 Y=69 K=0

R=219 G=222 B=114

Pan 587Pantone 587

C=12 M=2 Y=51 K=0

R=227 G=229 B=151

Pan 7412Pantone 7412

C=16 M=59 Y=96 K=2

R=207 G=122 B=48

Pan 129Pantone 129

C=4 M=16 Y=84 K=0

R=245 G=207 B=71

Pan 127Pantone 127

C=6 M=8 Y=66 K=0

R=243 G=222 B=116

Pan 202Pantone 202

C=31 M=95 Y=672 K=31

R=135 G=36 B=52

Pan 200Pantone 200

C=18 M=100 Y=83 K=8

R=190 G=15 B=52

Pan 196Pantone 196

C=6 M=25 Y=10 K=0

R=235 G=196 B=203

Pan Gary 6Pantone Warm Gray 6

C=36 M=35 Y=38 K=1

R=167 G=157 B=150

Pan Gary 3Pantone Warm Gray 3

C=22 M=19 Y=23 K=0

R=199 G=194 B=188

Pan Gray1Pantone Warm Gray 1

C=11 M=9 Y=12 K=0

R=224 G=222 B=217

Pan 872Pantone 872

C=0 M=21 Y=60 K=30

not applicable

Pan 877Pantone 877

C=51 M =40 Y=39 K=4

not applicable