What a Patent Drawing Must Look Like
Written from 37 C.F.R. 1.84. This is a regulation. Current as of 22 August 2026.
Black and white is normally required, in India ink or an equivalent securing solid black lines. Photographs are accepted only where they are the only practicable medium. Colour in a utility application is necessary only on rare occasions and requires a granted petition, a fee, and a specified amendment to the specification.
Patent drawings look the way they do because a regulation says so, and the rules are more specific than most people expect.
Black and white is the norm, in India ink or an equivalent that secures solid black lines.
Photographs are not ordinarily permitted. They are accepted only where a photograph is the only practicable medium for illustrating the claimed invention.
Colour is the sharpest rule. It is permitted in design applications. In a utility application it is necessary only on rare occasions, and the Office accepts it only after granting a petition explaining why, accompanied by a fee and a specified amendment to the specification.
For anyone whose diagrams are colour-coded by default, that last one is worth knowing before the filing rather than after. A coloured architecture diagram is not a small formatting choice.
The Rules, Medium by Medium
| Medium | Utility application | Design application | The regulation's words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black and white line drawings | Normally required | Normally required | "Black and white drawings are normally required. India ink, or its equivalent that secures solid black lines, must be used for drawings" |
| Colour drawings | Only after a granted petition, with the fee, the required sets and the required paragraph in the brief description; must reproduce in black and white | Permitted | "On rare occasions, color drawings may be necessary as the only practical medium by which to disclose the subject matter sought to be patented in a utility patent application"; "Color drawings are not permitted in international applications" |
| Photographs | Not ordinarily permitted; accepted "if photographs are the only practicable medium for illustrating the claimed invention", and an examiner may require a drawing instead where the subject admits of one | Same rule | "Photographs, including photocopies of photographs, are not ordinarily permitted in utility and design patent applications" |
| Sheet identification | If provided, "must be placed on the front of each sheet within the top margin"; later sheets marked as replacement or new | Same rule | 37 C.F.R. 1.84(c) |
The regulation's photograph examples are entirely from the life sciences and materials: gels, blots, cell cultures, histological sections, crystalline structures. Nothing in the enumerated examples contemplates a screenshot or a rendered user interface, and whether a software screen is a photograph, a drawing, or something the examiner may require redrawn is not answered by the text.
What This Does Not Decide
- It does not tell you how to prepare drawings or file a petition.
- It does not say whether colour would be granted in any case.
- It does not say whether your application needs a drawing at all, which is the statute and a separate page.
Educational, not legal advice. Whether any of this reaches a particular application is a determination for a registered patent practitioner.
Sources
- 37 C.F.R. 1.84
- Back to: how your application is put together