COLOR
It’s quite possibility the first thing any visitor will see when they visit your site.
And I’ll go so far as telling you that the colors you choose will make or break the deal for capturing a first time visitor as a repeat visitor. And of course, we want visitors to come back.
So, how can we develop color schemes that we love and yet have our visitors happy with the colors as well?
It seems to be that the trends are ever changing. Like Fashion Week in New York, web designers change with the ebb and flow of the world wide web to create color schemes that we love to see. From the traditional colors of blacks, whites, gray, and red to now more contemporary pieces like brown, teal, pink, and vibrant colors that are eye catching.
Creating the perfect balance with the colors you choose on your site is a never ending task that anyone with a website faces today. Really, how do you create something perfect and unique?
Here are 8 resources for finding the right color scheme for your design.
Daily Color Scheme
Daily Color Scheme gives exact color matches to logos and sites that we love, including hex code, RGB code, and HSB code. You won’t get the matching wrong here.
Colr
Grab inspiration from your favorite photo or a random image from Flickr.
Color Combos
From testing your current color combinations to inspirational colors, this is a great resource for web designers.
Instant Color Schemes
Have Yahoo go to work for you — enter a word into the site and a color scheme will be created from 5 related Yahoo images. It’s unique, give it that much!
Kuler
Brought to you by Adobe, Kuler lets you upload photos to grab color schemes or test drive some of the most popular schemes for your project.
Colour Lovers
From the latest trends to palettes that are perfect for any niche design, this is the place to go when inspiration could be at its lowest.
Color Schemer
Traditional, trendy, natural, organic — whatever look you’re going for, Color Schemer will help you find a palette that works.
Color Scheme Generator
Complimentary and contrasting, whatever you choose, this handy site will have you on the color with the best combination for you.
Whether your designing your own web site or designing for clients, it’s the visitors who will be a true test of what color schemes ultimately become useful and popular. Yes we want to be cutting edge but start with the simplicity of color and then turn any design unique by the elements you choose to add.
So, what do you think? What are your best resources for creating the perfect color scheme for your design?
For more tutorials check out the new tutorial site, The Tutorialist.
Erika
July 31, 2008 at 9:30 am
Honestly, I never use a color generator. I like to look at photography portfolios and try to find things that look beautiful together naturally, and then pull colors from those. Funny enough, I got the color scheme for my current portfolio from the lights above a nightclub bar. Don’t tell anyone, though. LOL!
Jacques SEOman
August 1, 2008 at 6:51 am
Colour is subjective, and many factors will influence the final colour / colour scheme utilised in a particular design. A colour wheel has never been the way for me, but then different strokes for different folks, what can I say?
Angie Bowen
August 1, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Colour Lovers is a wonderfully inspirational site. I’ll have to check out a few of the others.
Web Design Glasgow
August 2, 2008 at 3:46 am
I think the key here is not just picking your colours, but knowing how to apply them to your design effectively, to create contrast and balance.
Katy Castro
August 3, 2008 at 2:57 pm
@Erika: That’s the great thing about Colr or Kuler, they allow you to choose the colors from your photo and give you more extensive color information than just browsing colors from an image for the perfect scheme.
@Jacques: I very much agree — every person and designer sees color as something different.
@Angie: Colour Lovers is an awesome site, hope you find something you like at the others.
@Web Design Glasgow: Perhaps that is true and everyone starts the design quest in different ways… for me is the colors I want and then how to apply to contrast and create balance.
SEO Tips
September 7, 2008 at 8:59 am
Great resource of colour tools. I really enjoyed the Daily Colour Scheme, excellent.
Qbrushes
September 7, 2008 at 3:29 pm
I only knew of COLOUR LOVERS the rest is new to me. thanks
continue reading
April 2, 2012 at 9:28 am
My husband and i got very fortunate that Emmanuel could finish off his basic research from your ideas he discovered using your weblog. It’s not at all simplistic just to choose to be releasing information and facts which often people have been trying to sell. We really figure out we have the blog owner to give thanks to for this. All the illustrations you’ve made, the simple blog navigation, the friendships your site help to instill – it’s got mostly impressive, and it’s helping our son and our family reckon that that article is excellent, and that’s especially serious. Thanks for the whole lot!