We investigated whether retrieval would be best when study materials and tests are printed on the same colored paper, consistent with the encoding specificity principle. Undergraduates read a passage printed on red or green paper (Experiment 1) or white paper (Experiment 2), and took a test printed on red or green paper (Experiment 1) or white, blue, green, yellow, or pink paper (Experiment 2). ANOVAs revealed no significant interaction and no significant effect of the test’s paper color (p > .05), but a small effect of the passage’s paper color did very closely approach statistical significance (p = .052). Participants who studied material on green paper outperformed those who studied material on red paper. These findings suggest that educators using different colors to distinguish test versions will not negatively impact students’ performance, but that the color of study materials will affect the amount retained.