Effect of Colors Used for PTPs on Human Sensibility

The large amount of information printed in the limited space of PTP sheets is a cause of confusion.This includes drug names,manufacturers’names and warnings.However,an appropriate color scheme and design for the PTP as a whole can help people distinguish the individual information and differentiate the product from its competitors.This would also be effective in preventing misidentification of drugs in medical facilities.In the present study,we investigated the effect of color and printing on human sensibility.To do this,we used 3 types of photo of a well-known branded drug(BR group)and a little-know generic drug(GE group)-photo of original PTP with printing,photo of original PTP without printing,and“gray scale”photo of PTP(no color/printing)-by the SD(Semantic Differential)method and factor analysis.For the GE group,the profile of the original PTP with printing and that without printing looked more similar than those for the BR group,and this tended to be influenced by color.The factors of familiarity and sensibility could be identified in a factor pattern matrix.A cluster analysis of subject scores indicated clusters giving a strong impression of familiarity and sensibility for the original photo with printing in the BR group while in the case of the photo of the original PTP with no printing,cluster layouts were similar for both the BR and GE groups.We therefore consider that factors determining sensibility comprise recognition of printing and design as well as coloring.