Introduction

Basics
Divisions
Ordinaries
Colors
Rule of Tincture
Charges 1
Charges 2

Glossary

Related Books

About This Web Site

Let's recall for a moment the basic purpose of heraldry: how to identify someone either from far away or in the midst of a confusing, smoky, and dusty battle. The Rule of Tincture ensures that a device is easily recognizable and that its design is not obscured through lack of contrast.

You may not place a color on a color,
a metal on a metal, or a fur upon a fur.

Think of the device as being built up in layers. The first layer is the field; the next layer is an ordinary if one is present, and the top layer is the charge. The kind of tincture used in any layer determines the kind of tincture that can be applied to any higher layer. For instance, you cannot put a black fess on a blue field.

“Azure, a fess sable” blatantly breaks the rules of heraldry. To see why, look at this image from across the room. See how it all turns into a single dark blob? It would be indistinguishable from an all-blue or all-black shield.

All of the shields at the top of this page are examples of permissible combinations of heraldic colors.