What is Roan and what is Parti colour?

[Cockertime Blues]

I thought we had two blue roan dogs.  But I've been looking on the parti colour photo threads and the blue ones look like our dogs.  Then I googled images for roan and particolours and that was confusing too.  I would have thought particoloured meant solid colour patches and solid white patches (more like a springer) rather than the white being ticked or roan.  I'm sure I'll get my answer here. 

[spanielcrazy]

Parti colours are the colour grouping that includes roans and the "and whites" (black, liver, etc). Roaning is the mix of white hairs in with another colour. The solids are one colour, with no white.  The exception is the black or liver and tans, which are produced by solid parents, and also have no white (or very little) so are considered solids.

So for example if a breeder says they breed parti-colours, then they will have roans and/ or black, liver, or orange and whites