Resources / Colormatic In-Text Citation Format
Last updated: May 24, 2025
When citing documents in a research paper, news article, etc. there are many ways to do so. Popular formats include MLA and APA citation. Here at Colormatic Studios we have our own in-text citation format, and it’s simply called CCF (Colormatic Citation Format). The goal is to be easy to understand and effective at referencing other work and can be used for listing sources, references, etc. This document will show you how to use it properly.
To start, here is a template that you can take and fill in for your citations:
First Last, First Last & First Last, publisher:section. (Pub.|Upd.|© DATE) “Title” Link type|Page Retrieved: DATE.
NOTE: The vertical pipe characters (|) are logical OR operators. You only include the one that applies to your citation.
This can be broken up into separate pieces of information.
[Author name(s)][Publication][Relevant date][Title][Page or link][Retrieval date]
Most groups can be omitted if they are either not relevant or are unknown.
Names are written as Firstname Lastname. If you don't know the name of the author, you can use "Anonymous". If the producer of the work is a group, use the name of the group, like Editors of Wikipedia or Editors of Britannica.
If there are multiple authors that must be named individually, separate all but the last author by comma, then the last with "&". Example:
First last, first last & first last
The publisher can be a website, newspaper, university, company, government, organization, etc. When citing books, including the publisher may not be necessary but is recommended if it might be helpful for peers to find the book.
If the work you are citing is under a specific section of the publisher, add a colon (:) and include the name of the section in italics.
The date of publication can sometimes be hard or impossible to find. It is fine to omit this section, but it is often helpful to have.
The date of publication should be written as: (Pub. DATE)
The date of the last update should be written as: (Upd. DATE)
The date of copyright should be written as: (©DATE)
See section Date Formatting for information on formatting dates.
The title should be in quotes and italicized. Shortening the title is acceptable to keep things concise as long as it is still recognizable.
If your medium supports hyperlinks and the work you are citing is online, the link should be named the relevant type of media:
Website (Web. for short)
Document (E.g. PDF or other, Doc. for short)
Blog
Video (Vid. for short)
Article (Arcl. for short)
Post (Social media)
Podcast (Pod. for short)
Use the date of the day you added the relevant citation. If you found a source long ago but are just now citing it, you do not need to find the original date.
Different regions have different ways of writing dates. Unfortunately, this causes uncertainty between month/day/year or day/month/year. This can be solved by including a key at the top of a citation list, such as:
MM/DD/YYYY
Source 1
Source 2
...
Using a date format that avoids this problem is also an option, such as: January 1, 1970 or Feb. 26, 1997. It is important to clarify details to avoid confusion.
Sometimes you don't have the day or the month of publication. In this case, just write the information that is available.
Generally, CCF citation lists look like this:
APA Style:Style and Grammar Guidelines. (Upd. July 2022) "Basic Principles of Citation" Web. Retrieved: 11/19/2024.
MLA Style Center:Works-Cited-List Entries. "How to Cite an Online Work" Web. Retrieved: 11/19/2024.
In this style, citations are inside an ordered list and are in alphabetical order. Unlike some other citation formats, numbers are placed before letters in the list. This was one of the main inspirations for creating this citation format. If the name starts with special characters, use the first alphanumeric character.
For languages that don't use the Latin alphabet, either use the local ordering rules or the order found in Unicode. This is something that the APA style doesn't cover very well1.
Other sorting methods (like retrieval date) are also acceptable, but must be specified. Alphabetical is the default.
Often when using CCF, one may want to specify the use of CCF. If you wish, you can include a note that clarifies this as well as a link to this document.
MM/DD/YYYY
American Psychological Association. (Pub. Oct. 2019) "APA Style Guide, 7th Edition" Chapter 9 Retrieved: 5/24/2025.
The Colormatic In-Text Citation Format is primarily designed for digital publications, but the design also accounts for print media. When including links in print media, writing out the link inline with the rest of the citation can make it look really messy, so instead you can include a link table.
Source | Link |
|---|---|
Example source 1 | https://example.com |
Example source 2 | https://example.org |