Why Do Capsules Have Two Different Colors

Monsoon always hits the right cord. Just when I was all set to step in the Gym for the very first time to shed down my weight, cold and cough caught me and I ended up writing this article with a cup of hot coffee in my left hand and one capsule in my mouth.

We always hate medicine. Well apart from few sweet sugary cough syrups, almost all tablets, pills and capsules are dull and sometimes even sour. When you are feeling ill and asked to have these pills, you definitely revolt against it. Why on Earth will someone have it with such a bad taste. Perhaps the answer is simple, You Are SICK ! !

So just while I was being mean to my health and giving second thoughts about not having the capsule, one thing struck my mind. When its just a capsule, why does it have two different colors ? Why does is have two different parts ? It could have worked even if it was just one whole thing, RIGHT ? May be NOT ! !

Lets Crack This Up ! !

So first we need to understand how these capsules are produced. It was shocking to see that the two parts of the capsules were not of same size as soon as I opened them up. Have a look.

As you can see, the size of the two parts are not the same. One is wider than the other. And if you look closely then the wider one has more content than the shorter one. This definitely means that the shorter one is the ‘cap’ while the wider one is the ‘container’. Although both can act as a container, but its our general perception to consider a wider one as a container and shorter one as cap.


Now When the filling operation takes place with capsule filling machine, the body part i:e container is placed at bottom with mouth up so that it can take in the content and after filling the cap part is placed on container. Now such precision for making thousands and lakhs of capsules in small amount of time is a big deal. Imagine if both the parts were of same color, it would have been quite difficult to differentiate between cap and the container even on the basis of size and diameter. Hence, different colors were imparted to them so as to increase the production efficiency.

Also, there are many other reasons too. Many patients, especially kids are more attracted towards colored capsules. Yes my dad made me a fool way back when I was small by saying that this Red-White capsule is a Vanilla-Strawberry flavoured toffee. People get more confidence to take brighter colored capsules. So this coloring of capsules is also one of the marketing tactics of various Pharmaceutical companies.

Another reason for different colors for the same capsule can be the possibility of various permutation and combination of colors. Well, being a guy, I just know 7 different colors. V.I.B.G.Y.O.R. And yes, white and black too. But if you ask me to differentiate between Deep Magenta and Vivid Orshid, then buddy, I will rather choose to become blind. 

If a company produces various numbers of capsules for various diseases, and if they just stick with one ‘color-one capsule’ scheme, then one day they will certainly go out of options for colors. And this is the reason why they opted for color combination so as to increase their possibilities of identification. Having 2 different colors in one capsule gives them more color combinations to differentiate medicines.

So I hope that I was to help you people understand and know a bit more about medicines. If you have any more relevant information regarding this subject, please feel comfortable to share it with our readers in the comment section below ! !