Color Payoff

Color payoff is how much visible color a colored pencil deposits on the paper with a specific amount of pressure and application.

A pencil with strong color payoff produces rich, noticeable color with little effort. A pencil with weak color payoff requires additional pressure or repeated layers to create a similar color intensity.

Many colored pencil reviewers confuse “highly pigmented” (pigment load) with color payoff.

Color payoff is not the same as pigment load. A pencil can contain a ton of pigment but deposit very little color.

Color payoff relies pigment load PLUS excellent laydown and adhesion.

In the Lab, we evaluate color payoff through controlled-pressure layers to see how easily a pencil deposits color from how intense the color appears.