A Color Picking Resources for the Color-Challenged

For me, the hardest part of design is picking colors. I think it’s just part of being a guy.

Most girls are really good with colors because they deal with it every day. They’ve been putting make-up on their faces for years, and it takes more skill to make their outfits match. For most guys it’s jeans and a t-shirt. Not to difficult.

For those of you who are color-challenged like myself there is help.

Introducing Kuler from Adobe Labs
Kuler is an amazing FREE color tool that Adobe Labs came out with just over a year ago. It allows you to create harmonious color schemes online, or browse through and rate color schemes that others have created.

Just pick a color to start with and then choose a rule: analogus, monochromatic, triad, complementary, compounds or shades. Then play with a few dials and voila. Perfect color harmony every time.

If you know that the main color of your site is going to be purple, type ‘purple’ into the search bar. You will be shown all the purple color schemes that others have created.

Of all the color picker web sites and software I’ve seen Kuler takes the cake. Give it a try on your next project.

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Thanks for the info. I’m excited to check this out…I have been using Big Huge Labs up until now. http://www.mytechopinion.com/2.....-your.html

This might be good. I am color retarded.

[...] (2) How to choose the perfect complimentary colors for your online and offline marketing. Luke Knowles from the Virtual Marketing Blog suggests Kuler from Adobe Labs. [...]

Hi there — WebAssist, a company that creates extensions for the Adobe and Microsoft product ecosystem, today announce a free extension for Adobe Dreamweaver that harnesses the power of Kuler in the Dreamweaver environment.

WebAssist today announced the release of the free Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler, enabling instant access to the most recent, popular, or highest-rated colors and palettes right within Dreamweaver. With development contributions and support from the Adobe Kuler community, users can now experience the best in color choices and palette selections through Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler.

Kuler is the Adobe web application for designers to create, explore, and share color schemes. WebAssist’s Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler enables users to get the latest colors and sample colors from any Dreamweaver color picker. In addition, users can now insert a hex color value into code with a single mouse click.

Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler include the following capabilities and benefits:
• Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler works everywhere – with standard HTML pages or
standalone CSS style sheets. Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler is good to go for both designer and developer, and it works equally well in both Design and Code
view. Great for static, dynamic, or templated pages, Dreamweaver Tools for
Kuler covers the spectrum.
• With Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler, users can easily search for a specific color criteria. Search for a tag, hex value, creator’s email address or title, or any of the above. Page through results until the desired color is obtained, and then sample away.
• Just like on the Kuler site, users can view the Most Recent, Most Popular (most downloaded), or Highest Ranked color themes with Dreamweaver Tools for Kuler. Choose the desired option from the drop-down menu and color themes are listed, five at a time. Users can even choose Random for that extra bit of inspiration.
• Dreamweaver Tools for Kulers delivers the hottest, latest colors directly to users. It also allows them to choose from professional color schemes and find the hues and hex values that speak to them.

I second Aaron’s comment (he obviously works for WebAssist). The DW extension is a great way to integrate Kuler into the DW environment. BUT, WebAssist is better known for their other DW extensions that make developing dynamic sites in DW a breeze. Read about their Super Suite extensions at:

http://www.webrehash.com/super-suite.html