Color text without color package?

Question

I'm about to submit an article for publication, and I need to color some label text that I'm overlaying on my figures with the overpic package/environment (some labels need to be white to be readable on some figures). Problem is, I just noticed the submission guidelines say no color packages, so the

\usepackage[pdftex]{color}

I had been using is right out. Is there a way to get a specific string (really just single characters) colored white without a color package?

Answer 1

I guess this should receive downvotes instead of upvotes, but anyway:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
% works only if you use PDFTeX or LuaTeX
% Don't do this at home, use \usepackage{xcolor} instead
\chardef\MyArticleWithColor=\pdfcolorstackinit page direct{0 g}
Roses are black
\pdfcolorstack\MyArticleWithColor push {0 0 1 rg}
Violets are blue
\pdfcolorstack\MyArticleWithColor pop
But I am not.
\end{document}

yields

Answer 2

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Roses are black
\pdfliteral{0 0 1 rg}
Violets are blue \pdfliteral{0 0 0 rg}
But I am not.
\end{document}

Answer 3

My understanding is that you only need to do this for figures.

I need to color some label text that I'm overlaying on my figures with the overpic package/environment (some labels need to be white to be readable on some figures

My suggestion is to use a sniping program and recapture the images as .jpg or whatever format the Journal recommends after you have set the writing with the overpic package. Then in the final paper you only use images. No need for color acrobatics. See https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/45023/963, especially the Mandela image that was produced this way.