The 30 best tools for choosing a colour scheme
01. mudcube Colour Sphere
If you're unsure about your colour scheme, Mudcube has a selection of themes to choose from
The
Mudcube Colour Sphere is a handy little colour resource for designers
in that it not only provides the hex numbers for each colour; it also
helps you to build up a colour scheme from one chosen shade. If you're
unsure what colour scheme you should be going for, Mudcube provides a
selection of themes from a drop-down menu.
02. Check my Colours
Make sure you're using the correct colour combinations in your web design with this handy tool
This
web designer's tool 'Check my Colours' is designed to check foreground
and background colour combinations of all DOM elements, to determine if
they provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour
deficits. All the tests are based on the algorithms suggested by the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It was created by web designer Giovanni
Scala.
03. Color hunter
Color Hunter provides a colour palette using your chosen image
Although Color Hunter may not look like much at first glance, it's actually a really useful colour tool if you can't find a particular colour. Find an image that you like the look of and then enter it into Color Hunter; the tool will then create a colour palette from your chosen image. It's a great way to create your own colour theme.
04. TinEye
If you’re looking for an exact colour, you can enter the hex number in the URL
This
website uses a database of 10 million Creative Commons images harvested
from Flickr to let you explore colour combinations. It's probably the
fastest way to get free images in the perfect colour combination, and
it's also just a fascinating and intuitively designed tool that's a
pleasure to use.
05. Pic2color
Upload an image or URL to Pic2color to get the colour information
Pic2color is a brilliant tool that enables you to create colour palettes from images and URLs. Simply upload either to the site
and it will extract the colour information quickly, before showcasing
each shade in a grid format. You can then click on each individual
colour to access it's unique HTML code.
06. Pretty IP
Pretty IP creates a unique palette of complementary colours based on the numbers in your Internet Protocol
Pretty IP, brought to you by design
agency Strange, creates a unique palette of complementary colours based
on the numbers in your IP (Internet Protocol) address. Once you've tried
it out on your home and office computers, give it a whirl each time
you're connected to a new IP address (a great excuse to try that new
coffee shop) and get a burst of colour palette inspiration each time you
do so.
07. Color
Color lets you find the perfect colour by moving around your mouse - then gives you that all-important colour hex code
Color by HailPixel is a handy little web
app if you're a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to getting the
colour just right. Hover your mouse anywhere across the screen to nail
down your chosen colour, scroll to set your saturation, and the site
will give you that all-important hex code for your projects. It's one of
the easiest such tools we've ever used.
08. Designspiration
Designspiration will generate a display of all images with your chosen colour combinations
At Designspiration, you can select up to
five hues from a useful full-page palette, which gives you the chance
to really see what colors you’re looking at. The site will then generate
a display of all the images in its database with that colour
combination. The hex numbers are prominently displayed, and you can
click on them individually. Images can be saved to your collections on
the site.
09. Kuler
Kuler is probably the best known of the colour tools
Perhaps the best known of all online
colour theme tools, Adobe Kuler has graduated from a simple web-based
colour tool to a fully fledged theme generation and sharing resource.
Plugins are available for all the main Adobe tools including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, making it a great integrated tool for regular Creative Suite users.
10. ColorExplorer
ColorExplorer is one of the most feature-rich tools available
This is possibly one of the most
in-depth tools available on the web, offering a wide range of tools to
design, customize and analyze your colour palettes. There are, for
example, tools that can help you determine the WCAG validity of your
colour choices, conversion tools to help you move between different
systems, as well as a whole suite of picker and palette generation
tools.
11. Hex Color Scheme Generator
Hex generates colours that combine well with an existing colour reference
A handy little tool for generating
colours that will work in combination with an existing colour reference
you have. Simply paste in a hexadecimal colour value, and the tool will
return a set of pleasing colours that can be used with your base colour
and feel like a deliberate theme decision.
12. Color Scheme Designer
Color Scheme Designer offers some interesting ways to generate colour themes
This online tool provides a similar
output to Adobe Kuler, but has some interesting ways of generating
colour themes by allowing you to select from the scheme
brightness/saturation, and contrast rather than selecting the individual
colours that make up the scheme. A range of standard mathematical
scheme methods are available including mono, triad, tetrad and analogic.
13. COPASO
COPASO is a great all-in-one solution to creating a colour scheme
One of the tools within the COLOURlovers
site, COPASO is worth highlighting individually as a great all-in-one
solution to generating palettes. It offers a full range of colour
selection tools within a simple interface, including the ability to add
notes to your palettes, upload images, enter CMYK references directly
and select from a range of different operations to build your colour
scheme.
14. Colourmod
Lightweight desktop tool Colourmod is a useful way to pick and identify a colour
Colourmod is a desktop-based tool that
allows you to choose a single colour from within your widget area,
whether you’re on a Mac with dashboard, or using Konfabulator on
Windows. Not directly a colour palette tool as such, but nonetheless it
offers a useful way to pick and identify a colour without having to
launch a heavy-weight tool.
15. ColorZilla
ColorZilla is available for Chrome and Firefox
This started out life as a Firefox
plugin, but is now also available for Google’s Chrome browser.
ColorZilla is an extension that includes a raft of colour-related tools
including a colour picker, eye-dropper, css gradient generator and
palette browser.
16. Colormunki
Colormunki lets you generate colour schemes from Pantone swatches
A useful online tool from the makers of
the Colormunki colour calibration tool, this online offering allows you
to create colour palettes from Pantone swatches using a number of
different methodologies to generate pleasing combinations.
17. Colr.org
Colr.org lets you see the range of colours within an image
This pared-down tool offers a unique
insight into the colour-from-image analysis that is automated in other
tools, allowing you to see the range of colours available within an
image, and pick those that appeal to you to form the basis for a theme.
Well worth a look, even if it’s not quite as visually polished as some
of the other tools available on the web.
18. ColourGrab
ColourGrab is a great little tool for creating colour schemes from images
This handy little tool creates a colour
palette from any image on the web. Simply paste in the address of the
image you’d like to analyze, and the site will grab the image, pull out
the colours within it and generate a handy 3D pie chart showing colour
usage throughout the image. Not so useful for creating traditional
themes, but great for examining images and the colour distribution
within them.
19. ColorBlender
ColorBlender generates a set of five colours that work well together
One of the easiest tools available, this
website allows you to grab a swatch, adjust the colour and watch in
real-time as it generates a set of five colours that work in
combination. The palettes can be downloaded directly to Photoshop, or to
Illustrator in the form of an EPS file
20. GrayBit
GrayBit lets you analyze a website to see what it looks like in grayscale
This handy tool won’t help you choose a colour theme directly, but it will help you analyze your site (or someone else’s) to see what your site looks like rendered in greyscale. This is useful for checking that you’ve achieved sufficient contrast in your colour palette to meet accessibility guidelines, and regulatory compliance.
21. COLRD
COLRD is a great way to share and discover colour schemes
This colourful tool acts as a great
source of inspiration by sharing colour palettes generated by its users,
as well as patterns, gradients and images. A visual feast for the eyes,
it’s not a simple generation tool, but it worth a visit to find some
happy discoveries.
22. Color hunter
Color Hunter is a great colour discovery tool
A useful way to quickly grab a colour
palette from images uploaded, by searching for an appropriate tag, or by
HEX reference. Quick and easy to use, it’s more about being a discovery
than a colour generation tool, but offers a nice range of palettes to
choose from.
13. Shutterstock Spectrum
You can filter images by their colour balance and brightness
Sometimes the best way of seeing if a
colour scheme will work is via a selection of stock images. All the main
stock image librariesoffer this kind of tool, but Shutterstock Spectrum
has a particularly nice interface because the images are displayed on
such a large scale. After using the slider to determine your colour
search, you can further specify a keyword that determines the subject
matter with impressive accuracy. An intriguing option allows you to
filter images by their colour balance and brightness.
24. TinEye
If you’re looking for an exact colour, you can enter the hex number in the URL
TinEye uses a database of 10 million
Creative Commons images harvested from Flickr to let you explore colour
combinations. It's probably the fastest way to get free images in the
perfect colour combination, and it's also just a fascinating and
intuitively designed tool that's a pleasure to use.
25. Stripe Generator 2.0
Stripe Generator 2.0 can help create attention-grabbing colour combinations
Billed as the "ultimate tool for web 2.0
designers", you might think this tool has had its day (even if it’s all
tongue in cheek). Regardless, it’s a useful way to generate pleasing
colour combinations, and to generate eye-popping patterns at the same
time!
26. Colors on the Web
Colors on the Web is powered by Flash
Colors on the Web accepts a single
colour in hexadecimal or RGB, and outputs a set of schemes based on
different mathematical equations, similar to Kuler. This won’t work on
iPad or iPhone though as it uses Flash to power the schemer.
27. COLOURlovers
COLOURlovers is a bit like Pinterest for colour
COLOURlovers is a community designed
around the sharing and appreciation of colours, palettes and patterns.
It’s a bit like a Pinterest board for colour, and provides a ready
source of inspiration in the palettes shared by its users. A great tool
if you’re a colour aficionado, and like to share your passion.
28. Pictaculous
Pictaculous lets you upload an image and generate a colour scheme from it
This excellent tool from the makers of
MailChimp allows you to upload an image and generate a colour scheme
from the colours within. It integrates with some of the other tools
featured in our list, bringing you results from Kuler and Colourlovers
simultaneously. There’s also a handy Adobe Swatch download for your
theme, making it a quick and easy way to grab the colours you need to
complement a photo.
29. Contrast-A
Contrast-A lets you simulate the effects of various visual disabilities
This is a somewhat unusual colour
scheming tool, in that it’s designed to help ensure you create
WCAG-compliant colour schemes by allowing you to preview levels of
contrast, and simulate colour blindness, reduced vision and clinical
blindness. There is also an invaluable set of links to guidelines (in
much more user-friendly terms than the specification document itself)
30. ColoRotate
ColoRotate boasts a beautiful visualisation of the colour wheels
Offering similar functionality to Kuler,
but with a nice 3D visualisation of the colour wheels, and the ability
to generate more than five colours in a single scheme, ColoRotate can
also be integrated directly into some Creative Suite applications, and
offers a nice alternative to Adobe’s own offering. This tool is also
available as an iPad app, offering a nice integration with Photoshop
where it can act as a “colour console”.
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