Before the use of hatching to depict individual heraldic tinctures, it was common to "trick" heraldic designs when colours were unavailable. The arms would be drawn in outline, and the tinctures written in abbreviated form: "O" or "or" for or; "A", "ar", or "arg" for argent, "G" or "gu" for gules; "S" or "sa" for sable; "Az" or "B" for azure ("B" for "blue" being used in older trickings to avoid confusion between "ar" and "az"); "Vt" for vert, "Purp" for purpure, and "Pr" for proper. Although most records of the College of Arms are in colour, the practice of tricking is used in all other cases, even after the widespread adoption of hatching for printing and engraving arms.