Your pill's color might be doing more than you think
Here’s What the Colors of Your Prescription Pills Are Trying to Tell You
Published on Jul. 30, 2025
Recently, a Reddit user made an interesting discovery. The cheeky decorative pillow on their couch—shaped like a blue-and-cream capsule with the words “chill pill” on it—exactly matched her real-life medication: an antipsychotic, i.e., a real-life chill pill. Besides being a hilarious coincidence (and probably a missed licensing opportunity), it got a lot of us wondering about the colors of the medications we take. I personally take a daily antidepressant that is a color I can only describe as a cross between the burnt-sienna Crayola crayon and wet cat food. I feel a little ripped off, not going to lie. Why does her pill get the fun aesthetic and mine looks like something scraped off a boot? And why aren’t all medications just plain white—why are prescription pills colorful?
Just like there’s a real reason why pill bottles are orange, it turns out that color is a surprisingly useful and important tool when it comes to our medications. “There are a number of reasons that prescription pills are colorful,” says Talia Wall, PharmD, a pharmacist and assistant professor at Touro College of Pharmacy. We asked Wall, along with pharmacists Thomas So, PharmD, senior manager of the Consumer Drug Information Group at First Databank, and Andrew Brueckner, PharmD, director of pharmacy at Mount Auburn Hospital, to share all the reasons—practical, psychological and occasionally petty—for why pills are so colorful. Read on to find out what those colors are trying to tell you.
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Why are prescription pills colorful?
Colorful pills are probably more fun to take (depending on what condition you’re treating), but it goes way beyond aesthetics. There are some really smart and important reasons pills are colored the way they are. And it’s important you know the reasons because it can impact how you take your medications. Here are the top reasons meds are so colorful:
To help you (and your pharmacist) tell them apart
Color is a quick visual cue to distinguish medications that may otherwise look nearly identical. “Color helps both patients and health-care professionals quickly distinguish between different medications,” So says. This is especially helpful for people managing multiple prescriptions or anyone who’s had that “Did I already take my meds or not?” moment.
Color, along with shape and imprint, gives pharmacists a way to verify you’re getting exactly what was prescribed—and not, say, your dog’s flea medicine.
To keep you from taking the wrong dose
Ever had to use two doses of the same drug? Then you know how handy color can be. “The manufacturer will sometimes use different colors to make it easier to identify the correct strength,” So explains. This can be life-saving when it comes to meds with serious side effects from even small dosing errors.
To improve medication adherence
Sometimes, it’s not about getting the right pill, but remembering to take it at all. “Patients are more connected to colored pills and may be more likely to adhere to a medication regimen if they build associations between certain colored pills and certain times of day,” Wall says. Think “green pill = calm = bedtime” and “yellow pill = sunshine = morning,” and you get the idea.
To protect the medicine itself
Some colors serve more than vibes, they have a functional purpose. Some meds are photosensitive, meaning they can break down when exposed to light. “Certain colors and coatings can help protect light-sensitive medications from degrading,” So says. So manufacturers use colorants like titanium dioxide or iron oxides—basically SPF for your meds—to block out harmful rays. One example? Doxycycline, a commonly prescribed antibiotic, is coated with a yellow- or brown-colored film that blocks out light, helping the pill stay safe and effective longer.
So adds that these coatings can also control how fast a pill dissolves and help prevent stomach irritation. So that shiny blue coating is basically armor.
To make meds more appealing
Taste? Not always negotiable. Color? Absolutely. “Pediatric medications may use bright colors to make the medicine more attractive to children and reduce apprehension,” So says. That bubblegum-pink amoxicillin wasn’t just a fever dream, it was a calculated choice. And this works on adults too. Color can influence how effective people believe a medication is—blue is calming, red is energizing, yellow is uplifting, etc.
To help with branding and marketing
Some medication colors are so iconic that they’ve become the name of the color—think “Viagra blue” and “Pepto-Bismol pink.” That’s not a coincidence; the color builds customer loyalty, just like logos or jingles. “Patients are more likely to trust and support a product if they recognize and feel comfortable with the branding,” Wall says.
Have prescription pills always been this colorful?
No, in fact, adding color is a fairly recent innovation.
“Historically, medications were often dispensed as powders, liquids or hand-compounded tablets with minimal attention to color,” Brueckner says. Color first showed up in the 1930s and ’40s, when pharmaceutical companies began using dyes and flavors to mask bad tastes and ugly colors, protect sensitive ingredients and market their products. They didn’t become widespread until the 1960s, with the development of soft-gel capsules and improved coatings. Also in 1960, the FDA began regulating which dyes could be used in medications (and foods and cosmetics) under the Color Additive Amendments. Because “oops, poison” was no longer an acceptable marketing strategy. (Fun fact: Arsenic‑based color pigments were popular in the 19th century for everything from wallpaper and textiles to, shockingly, food flavorings and patent medicines.)
Ever wondered how the pills are colored? The film coating process starts by tumbling the tablets in a giant pan or fluid bed while spraying them with a fine mist of colorful coating solution. The pills get evenly coated while being gently dried. They’re then left to cool off before packaging. Honestly, it sounds like they have a better skin-care routine than I do.
What are the colors of your prescription pills trying to tell you?
Those pill colors are trying to communicate some important things to you and prevent potentially serious mistakes. The color can help you recognize your meds, know when and how to take them, and even play subtle mind games.
“Colored pills help patients visually differentiate between multiple medications, reducing the risk of medication errors like taking the wrong pill or double dosing,” Brueckner says.
Color can also help you form habits around taking your meds. “The color of the medication can help a patient remember which pill to take and when,” So says. And consistent color matters. If your pill suddenly changes appearance, it can actually make you more likely to skip doses or stop taking the med entirely, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Which is also why it’s a good idea to double-check with your pharmacist if your refill suddenly looks different.)
And finally, color has a psychological effect too. “Yellow is frequently associated with antidepressants due to an uplifting and cheery connotation, while green is linked to calming and tranquilizing effects,” So says.
So is my anti-depressant … trying to make me more depressed?! In reality, the dreary color probably has less to do with my mood and more to do with the fact that I’m taking a generic version of the medication, which means it’s less likely to have a carefully chosen, brand-specific color.
Do different classes of meds have assigned colors?
Contrary to what your chaotic medicine drawer may suggest, there’s no universal color-coding system. “There is no standardized color for a particular class of drugs,” Wall says. “The color, shape, size or imprint usually has nothing to do with how the drug works.”
You might associate pink with antibiotics or yellow with antidepressants, but that’s usually the result of branding choices or just coincidence.
In fact, the same drug can come in wildly different colors depending on the brand or even the pharmacy. “Nowadays, you can have five different manufacturers producing a generic version of the same drug, and they can all look different,” Wall says.
This is actually on purpose: “Generic drug manufacturers are legally required to make their pills look different from the brand-name versions to avoid trademark infringement,” So explains. So if your new refill looks different, don’t panic—but do ask your pharmacist to confirm it’s still the right med.
How can you use pill color to your advantage?
Whether you’re managing five prescriptions or just trying to remember which vitamin doesn’t give you weird dreams, here are a few pharmacist-approved ways to make pill color work for you:
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Match it to your routine. Think of a color association that works for you, like taking the blue one at night and the orange one with breakfast. Boom—built-in reminders.
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Spot-check your meds. If one pill in your organizer is a different color than usual, double-check before taking it.
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Track your doses. Not sure if you took your medication already? Seeing an empty slot where the red one usually goes might jog your memory.
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But don’t rely on color alone. Always read the label and use a pill organizer. Pill doppelgängers are real.
Note: If you’re color-blind or have difficulty distinguishing pills visually, talk to your pharmacist about using a labeled pill organizer or apps that help identify medications by imprint and shape.
And hey, maybe check out the pillow section of your home goods store to see if you can match your drugs to your decor—it worked for at least one person!
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Sources:
- Talia Wall, PharmD, assistant professor at Touro College of Pharmacy; email interview, July 25, 2025
- Thomas So, PharmD, senior manager of the Consumer Drug Information Group at First Databank; phone interview, July 25, 2025
- Andrew Brueckner, PharmD, director of pharmacy at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts; email interview, July 24, 2025
- Polymers: “Pharmaceutical Coating and Its Different Approaches, a Review”
- ColorCon: “Film Coating 101: How the Pharmaceutical Tablet Coating Process Works”
- JAMA Internal Medicine: “Variations in Pill Appearance of Antiepileptic Drugs and the Risk of Nonadherence”
- Reddit: “My antipsychotic next to my pillow”
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration: “Color Additives History”
