stllarjae studio

Color Tools Reviewed

Posted by Anna T. on 4 August 2009 | 0 Comments

There are so many tools to aid designers online that its nice to have some points of comparison. I have used and reviewed five online color tools in the categories of usability, level of interaction, design/interface and overall impression. It's great to have these tools accessible through the net and handy to go through the pros and cons of a few top color picking tools. Granted, not every project will rely on color tools, but it is sometimes nice when you play around and find something you didn't think would otherwise work.

About the criteria:

USABILITY: Would someone who has never used a color tool be able to navigate the tool easily?

INTERFACE/DESIGN: Purely from an aesthetic point of view.  Did the visual layout of the site distract from the function?

DEPTH OF INTERACTIVITY: To what extent can one become involved in the process of creating colors?  Includes on-site blogging, forums, etc.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Considering everything, what was the overall usefulness of the tool?

And here they are, in no particular order.  Have fun with these!

1. Adobe Kuler

BEST FOR: Almost everyone. Adobe Kuler was likely the easiest to access and most straight forward color tool on the net. Adobe normally does quite well. Now if they could just stop spelling color as "kolor", I would be happy.

NOT FOR: People interested in spending a few minutes looking at colors. It's easy to get wrapped up in profiles and such.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT: Pulse. Located on the left navigation. It's a really interesting way of displaying visual information as complex as having a user community.

 

2. Colorjack

BEST FOR: People who want something easy to use, but don't like fancy transitions and flash. It's straight-forward. Nothing fancy.

NOT FOR: People who are looking for a large community or forum. Or people who like to find good color sets from other people. Most of the colors sets seem unattractive.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT: The stripe generator. Striped goodness.

 

3. Daily Color Scheme

BEST FOR: People intimidated by choices. There is one daily color scheme consisting of eight colors.

NOT FOR: Pros. The Daily Color Schemes that I have seen, don't tend to do much for inspiration.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT: Umm. The outdated Adobe product icons?

4. Color Scheme Designer

BEST FOR: Web designers. The color sets can be previewed in the form of a light web layout or a dark layout with images and headings. Also, good for people who are colorblind. There are adjustments for this.

NOT FOR: Those using Adobe Illustrator. The palettes are not exportable in .ase format.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT: The random button. Some good ideas come up.

 

5. Colour Lovers

BEST FOR: Beginners to Pros and social people who like big communities and a good variety of users.

NOT FOR: Someone looking for a quick color set. There is a lot to do and get hung up on here.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT: a lot of things, really. In addition to color sets, there are patterns, palettes, groups, forums and blogs. Easy to forget why you came in the first place.