The top panels show a comparison of the distribution of g−i colours measured for the ‘barred regions’ of the galaxies classified as barred (black histograms) with the distribution of g−i colours measured for the same regions in the sample of control galaxies (red dashed histograms). Results are shown for weak bars (left) and for strong bars (right). The bottom panels show a comparison of g−i colours measured for the ‘pseudo-ring’ regions of the barred and control galaxy samples. Only bar sample A galaxies are plotted.