# 🎨 If Van Gogh used Asana: a study about colors on Asana **URL:** \ **Category:** Forum Leader tips\ **Tags:** forum-leader-tip\ **Created:** [8 August 2020 07:40 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/if-van-gogh-used-asana-a-study-about-colors-on-asana/91192 "2020-08-08T07:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bastien\_Siebman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/bastien_siebman/32/172354_2.png) [@Bastien\_Siebman](https://forum.asana.com/u/Bastien_Siebman)\ **Post date:** [8 August 2020 07:40 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/if-van-gogh-used-asana-a-study-about-colors-on-asana/91192/1 "2020-08-08T07:40:36Z")
Hi 👋, If you want to be serious about using Asana for some advanced workflows, then you need to understand its color system. By color system, I mean how colors are picked by Asana to show as the main color of a task in Calendar view and Timeline view, and also the color of the squares in Calendar view. 🧐 I was convinced the main colors of a task was based on some priority between the multi-homed projects, the tags, and the custom fields. And I was surprised to see that this is actually the most occurring color within projects, tags and custom fields that took over. **Conclusions first** The color of a task in the Timeline and the Calendar comes from the project color, the tags, and the custom fields. 1️⃣ you can’t change the order of the tags to “choose” the task color 2️⃣ you can’t change the order of the custom fields to “choose” the task color 3️⃣ you can’t change the order of the projects to “choose” the task color 4️⃣ the color of the currently viewed project is never used 5️⃣ the main color is picked from the most occurring color within projects, tags, and custom fields. 6️⃣ the squares are picked from the projects, tags and custom fields, ordered by decreasing order of occurrence. **Legend** 🔺: red 🔹: blue 🔸: orange 🗓: color of task in Calendar view ⏰: color of task in Timeline view * * * A TASK WITH JUST TAGS **Context** No multi-homing No custom field 3 tags: 🔺🔹🔸 **Result** ⏰: 🔺 🗓: 🔺 as background color, then 3 squares 🔺🔹🔸 **Control** You can’t change the order of tags on a task. **Conclusion** The colors’ order and the main color are defined based on an unknown order. * * * A TASK WITH JUST CUSTOM FIELDS **Context** No multi-homing No tag 3 drop-down custom fields with values: 🔺🔹🔸 **Result** ⏰: 🔺 🗓: 🔺 as background color, then 3 squares 🔺🔹🔸 **Control** Changing the order of the custom fields in list view has no effect on the colors order. Removing a field from the project and adding it back does not change the colors order either. **Conclusion** The colors’ order and the main color are defined based on an unknown order. * * * A MULTI-HOMED TASK **Context** Projects color: 🔸🔹🔺 Project viewed: 🔸 No tag No custom fields **Result** ⏰: 🔹 🗓: 🔹 as background color, then 2 squares 🔸🔺 **Control** The order of the project is an alphabetical order BUT changing the order does not change which color is picked. The order in which you multi-homed also has no impact. **Conclusion** In the calendar, the task takes the color of the first project it is part of that is not the currently viewed project. The colors’ order and the main color are defined based on an unknown order. * * * A COLORFUL TASK **Context** Projects color: 🔸🔹🔺 Project viewed: 🔸 3 tags: 🔺🔹🔸 3 custom fields: 🔺🔹🔸 **Result** ⏰: 🔺 🗓: 🔺 as background color, then 3 squares 🔸🔺 **Conclusion** The main color is picked from the most occurring color within project colors, tags, and custom fields. Then each square is displayed for each color used in projects, tags, and custom fields, ordered by the decreasing number of occurrences. * * * I am pretty sure I only scratched the surface and there is more to discover about colors. Any insights on other rules, corrections on mine, or ideas on what to study next? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Berger\_lpb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/larry_berger_lpb/32/276017_2.png) [@Larry\_Berger\_lpb](https://forum.asana.com/u/Larry_Berger_lpb)\ **Post date:** [8 August 2020 15:06 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/if-van-gogh-used-asana-a-study-about-colors-on-asana/91192/2 "2020-08-08T15:06:50Z")
@Bastien_Siebman, Are you saying that you found that these are no longer true? > [@How to color tasks by project color in calendar view in an advanced search?](https://forum.asana.com/t/how-to-color-tasks-by-project-color-in-calendar-view-in-an-advanced-search/48291/2): > > Hi @Adam-Involute! Very good question. I checked this from my side and I can see the color of the task in your calendar view is actually correlated to the first project/tag you added to your task. Let’s say, if you added the project color first, the task will show the color of the first project you linked to this task. You can check more information in this post: [Tasks showing tag colour instead of project colour in team calendar](https://forum.asana.com/t/tasks-showing-tag-colour-instead-of-project-colour-in-team-calendar/11104) I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions. and: [https://forum.asana.com/t/tasks-showing-tag-colour-instead-of-project-colour-in-team-calendar/11104/13?u=lpb](https://forum.asana.com/t/tasks-showing-tag-colour-instead-of-project-colour-in-team-calendar/11104/13) I haven’t done any testing; just recalled those posts and was wondering if you had tested what they assert before you posted? Larry ---
**Author:** ![Bastien\_Siebman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/bastien_siebman/32/172354_2.png) [@Bastien\_Siebman](https://forum.asana.com/u/Bastien_Siebman)\ **Post date:** [9 August 2020 07:43 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/if-van-gogh-used-asana-a-study-about-colors-on-asana/91192/3 "2020-08-09T07:43:31Z")
I can confirm that this is not true, if you play around with tags, custom fields or projects, the color changes. However, when it comes to tags, there seems to be a default order, that gets defined when you first add tags. But that default order seems to be shared across projects somehow. This is still blurry. ---
**Author:** ![Marie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/asana/user_avatar/forum.asana.com/marie/32/42208_2.png) [@Marie](https://forum.asana.com/u/Marie)\ **Post date:** [11 August 2020 10:26 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/if-van-gogh-used-asana-a-study-about-colors-on-asana/91192/4 "2020-08-11T10:26:12Z")
Pinned on 11 August 2020 10:26 UTC ---
**Author:** ![anon32683947](https://luna1.co/8d76cd.png) [@anon32683947](https://forum.asana.com/u/anon32683947)\ **Post date:** [26 January 2022 18:01 UTC](https://forum.asana.com/t/if-van-gogh-used-asana-a-study-about-colors-on-asana/91192/5 "2022-01-26T18:01:17Z")
I’m pretty sure that when you use “default Asana colours” in the calendar view (which defaults to tag colouring of tasks from what I can see), the colour of the task uses the lowest ID tag colour. The order of the tags that you add to that task is not important, nor is alpha. And another tag “Blog” with ID: [https://app.asana.com/0/1200200815977423/list](https://app.asana.com/0/1200200815977423/list) e.g. If I create a tag “Social” with ID: [https://app.asana.com/0/1200246573419366/list](https://app.asana.com/0/1200246573419366/list) And another tag “AMA” with ID: [https://app.asana.com/0/1200290815977423/list](https://app.asana.com/0/1200290815977423/list) And assign different colours, when I tag the task with all the above tags, the “Blog” colour takes precedence since it has the lowest ID. Interestingly you can actually see the order of tag ID’s as you add them to a task since they get re-ordered in the tag field based on their creation ID. Another thing to note is that “grey” is not actually a colour and is effectively hidden: `