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> How many colors can you use on a whiteboard?

Uhh... the classroom I work in has at least 16 (bolds and pastels). I can't imagine even if chalk afforded more colors that they would be distinguishable enough to be useful in technical contexts.



Oil pastels are usually available in 24s,48s, and 72s but yes, I do think humans could distinguish between more than 16 colors.

Personally, I have never seen more than 8 colors of dry-erase marker that are legible on a whiteboard.


Oh I don't doubt that humans can distinguish between more than 16 colors. But white/blackboards are used mostly for sciences and business, not drawing. Trying to distinguish between turquoise and aqua in a graph or formula is difficult at best. (And I really wish infographic/map designers understood this concept.)


Businesses like restaurants and bars use it all the time...

http://www.chalkitupsigns.com/


I think he meant unable to distinguish many shades against the black chalkboard surface.




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