OK, stupid question… I hear different terms when it comes to the color finish on various throws; I understand Anodizing as a whole - but some say colorway, acid wash, splash… and sometimes it’s a combo of these things - are these all the same thing - different techniques - do they change the feel? Looking for those in the know…
Colorway: The name given to a particular method of decoration applied to a yoyo. Sometimes it’s descriptive of the decoration, sometimes it’s just a name. I mean, take CLYWs 28 stories colorway. It’s attractive, but where does the name come from? What someone looks like when they fall from a 28-story window? There may be meaning behind it, there may not be.
Splash: The yoyo is given the appearance that there has been color splashed overit. This is often in the forms of uneven and non-uniform “lines” across the yoyo. The lines may be thick, thin and aim in any decoration. It’s as if a small container of paint was thrown at the yoyo.
Splatter: Similar to splash but gives the appearance that paint was accidentally dropped onto the yoyo.
Speckle: Similar the concept of spash, but imagine taking a paintbrush loaded with paint and then rubbing one’s finger over the bristles and as a result flicking paint at the surface of the yoyo, giving it a look of being dotted. Dots will be of irregular shapes and size.
Acid washed: the surface may actually have been exposed to liquid acid to affect the finish of the yoyo, often in an irregular manner. This will often be done to fade a primary color or to perhaps expose an underlying color. Appearance is often irregular.
Anodizing: The process used to color metal yoyos. It’s actually a method of applying color to an oxidizing layer that protects the yoyo.
Do they affect the feel? if actually painted, then yes as the paint can get into the surface treatments and “smooth them out” a bit. But when anodized? A little bit but this is understood when doing the treatment.
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They’re all aesthetic as far as I know…
Just different techniques of anoing. It’s an art form
This is a very informative answer 
thank you!
Yes great job a usual with the response studio
Thank you. I do what I can to help.
I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m actually more of a fan of solid colors. One of the things that people, such as myself, need to get over is that with the splash, speckle and splatter colorways(to a lesser degree with acid wash) is HOW the yoyo appears when spinning.
Take for example my custom splash painted FHZ done by xminusmikex. It’s a pearl base with blue splash. When spinning, the yoyo appears to glow an electric blue in the middle. It’s really a joy to watch in action.
My Dietz, which is black base wiht blue/green/white slim splash, more of a lined kind of job, appears more of a spinning textured surface, so you can actually see the spin as it hangs on the string dead centered over the bearing. I have 2 CLYW’s that use the 28 stories colorway and both take on different colors when spinning, one is more red than the other. Most of my others splash colorways aren’t so dramatic. The thin blue splash lines over the brown base on my Matterhorn Avalanche don’t really show when spinning.
I threw a friend’s skyline, and one side is more pink in appearance than the other when spinning.
Another interesting note is that I believe no two yoyos using the above described methods(splash, speckle, splatter, acid wash) are identical, making each one unique. The strengths of this is that your yoyo can be identified out of many other identical make and models. Recently, this was used to actually hold a BST’er of questionable reputation accountable for possibly scamming an individual. This was done by the seller’s own pictures that shows the same yoyo. It was determined to be the same yoyo due to the exact match of the splash, which had 3 distinctive dots in a small pattern.
Now, having said that, there are just some colorways that I really just can’t stand. Many are just too busy or insane for my tastes. The Monkey Finger Evil Yo looks decent to me in Nickel Mint, however the YYE special edition colorway is just too busy for my tastes.Fortunately, in this make and model, there is a colorway I can live with, which is good because I’d really like to get one of these. Similarly, to my eyes, The Rebel YoYo Macrocosm just, well, I can’t stand it because of how it looks. I’m sure I’d enjoy this one based on the shape and specs, but am simply unable to get over the colorway and cannot and will not spend my money on that yoyo. The good news is that I hear more of the Macrocosm’s are planned and in solids and other colorways that are a bit less “like what they currently hvae going on”.
Again, my personal preferences are for solids. It’s a safe way to go for almost any company. Or a clear anodizing to protect the metal. I really dig the look of metal colored yoyos.
Studio you could get a Macromism and pay 20 bucks to get it Novablasted it would leave it as a solid grey 
Actually I think it is like where some of the money is donated to an organization for aids or something. Can’t remember where I heard that though
It’s a valid idea. I’m not in any hurry to purchase a Macrocosm, so I’ll just wait until they release different colorways and see if there’s anything I can live with then.
Recently, there’s a lot of individuals or small groups coming up with really amazing designs and then forming a small company around it. I just feel that for the purposes of having the largest marketshare available, is to have some more colorway options. At the same point, you can’t please everyone. I’m relatively easy to please. However, even I have limitations!
Yes. The name comes from this book cover.