Why are pills/tablets/capsules different sizes? And why different colours? What do you think of all the variations in size? I hadn't even considered triangles, pentagons, or "cheerios".
And the heart shape? "It can be worthwhile to throw in a little bit of creativity when it comes to shapes. For example, a heart-shaped pill for a cardiovascular drug is a unique way of differentiating it from others. In many cases, having a unique tablet shape can also establish recognizability and brand loyalty in the medication."
Colour is used to distinguish dosage levels. This is Valium in the picture below. I guess the little heart centre is is a marketing moment. The different colours indicate different dosage levels and prevents mix-ups in dispensing.
How many colours are there? One article says there are 80,000 different colours. And the manufacture of tablets now is an industrial process. There is tablet tooling and the table compression process. A station of tablet tooling is made by one up punch, one bottom punch, and one middle die. The punch tip can be designed into different diameter.
It seems a long journey from "monastery medicine" - the traditional medieval European medicine which was in the hands of monks and nuns:
Take equal amounts of radish, bishopwort, garlic, wormwood, helenium, cropleek and hollowleek.
Pound them up, and boil them in butter with celandine and red nettle.
Keep the mixture in a brass pot until it is a dark red colour.
Strain it through a cloth and smear on the forehead or aching joints.
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