#103 – Color Codes for Marking Up Drawings

by Priscilla Duggins, Project Systems Specialist – SimplexGrinnell

When marking up drawings or documents, use this standard multi-color pen system:

      • red – incorporate items (add)

      • green – delete items

      • blue – comments for information only, not to be added to drawing.
        (Don’t use black, it doesn’t show well on a black and white drawing.)

      • yellow – items marked as “correct”

      • orange – items addressed by drafting (pickups) – to check your own work.

I have worked in the Architectural and Engineering industry for 20 years. The use of the markup color standard used to be the norm; I rarely see this system used anymore. It works and saves a lot of time and money in the end, besides not having the headache of trying to decipher a messy single color markup. It may seem like more work and a lot of hassle, but in the end it will save a lot of time. Also if you do this regularly, you will get used to it and it won’t take you longer. For those who don’t want the inconvenience of carrying and keeping track of multiple pens, there are several brands of multi-color single pens available.

Note from Fire Tech:  We did a little research on the marking system and found several different ways various industries use the marking system.  Color Codes for Marking up Engineering DrawingsFor a little more information matching the system above, see:  http://boltcad.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/tdc-redline-and-mark-up-procedure-for-inputs.pdf