Perhaps use the White, but have a more visible split in the top portion, using a combination of thick and thin lines:

=========————————-

Thanks for your comments. To clarify one aspect, the colors of the deliverable template (the black bar at the top, type and color of annotation overlays, etc) is probably orthogonal to the “Wireframes must be black and white” argument. We’re talking deliverables here, not wireframes (although I disagree with your belief regardless ). The user, therefore, is the reader of your PDF (a software engineer, a product manager, etc), not the end customer who traverses your implemented experience or participates in a usability test.

Nathan

Seriously. We use brand blue (actually, several tints of it, to add some fun) and do not have issues with distracting the user. Had to switch to the same design in purple when working as a subcontractor for someone else, when we switched logos to the primary vendor. Similarly, I blew off the legacy Nextel black and went with yellow at Sprint. Makes people happier, at all levels, as far as I can tell.

But I have never been a big believer in “wireframes must be black and white.”

Ink use? Increasingly, everything is seen on screen, so it doesn’t matter as much as it used to. If you seriously were going to have to print, photocopy and fax, never that much black. No more than 80-90% gray, to make sure the density doesn’t get too high for awful or un-calibrated printers.

C