Choosing Color.

**jayell** · Oct 18, 2004 11:53

Originally Posted by vgarcia

If you're still a little skittish about unleashing millions of potential colors on your website, you can try the Web Smart 4096 color palette instead, which I find to be a nice compromise between compatibility on older systems and freedom of color choices.

So this is another (larger) set of colors? .. without going to 16 million

Jayell

**vgarcia** · Oct 18, 2004 11:58

Originally Posted by jayell

So this is another (larger) set of colors? .. without going to 16 million

Yep, and with this option you can usually find a reasonable alternative to any color you had your heart set on.

**jayell** · Oct 18, 2004 13:01

Originally Posted by vgarcia

Yep, and with this option you can usually find a reasonable alternative to any color you had your heart set on.

Looks like a great compromise .. thanks!

Jayell

**Denyse** · Oct 21, 2004 15:41

Wow what great tools I found on this thread - One idea I use is to choose a photograph that creates the mood I am trying for (whether or not I will use it in the final project) and pick colors from it. I have gotten great combinations that way, and they have the advantage of being right for the design's mood.

**VampyKali** · Oct 21, 2004 17:20

This might sound weird but considering a unable to pay for many programs to do my work, I found that one of my best resources for color scheme is free. I like to go to some store (normally wal-mart) and look at the paint samples. I take the ones I like then scan them into the computer so that I can open it up in Photoshop and get the Hex #. It might be simple, but it also helps to take the swatches to prospective clients so they can see them and they also can look at a few variants.

**KelliShaver** · Oct 21, 2004 23:39

MegamanXplosion is right on the money on this one. There is so much more to effective use of color than picking hues that look nice together. Anybody can do that, usually, so it's not so much how the colors look to the user, but what they say to the user. Sure, if you have a basic idea of what you want to communicate with those colors and how to do it, then the color scheme tools mentioned here can help you tweak that message, but you still need a good, solid understanding of color theory if you want to communicate with it.

I'd highly reccommend the Pantone Guide to Communicating With Color - It covers basic color theory in a nutshell, with excellent examples, and then contains a few hundred color palettes in the back, grouped by mood/message/feel. It also has RGB/CMYK conversion charts in the back as well. It's definately worth the money.

**catchar** · Oct 23, 2004 00:20

Here are a few from my Bookmarks:

About.com Color Gallery
http://graphicdesign.about.com/library/color/blweb.htm

About.com general design
http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/designtips/

A WYSIWYG color scheme demo
http://www.bagism.com/colormaker/

A simple "sample" comparison
http://www.colorcombo.com/

Color "code" tool
RGB to HTML tag converter
http://www.inquisitor.com/hex.html

**User_Unfriendly** · Oct 24, 2004 13:12

what do you think a good 3rd color for FF0000 and just 000000 would be, this is something I am working on:

http://userunfriendly.com/newuu/

**wbd** · Oct 24, 2004 15:46

Originally Posted by User_Unfriendly

what do you think a good 3rd color for FF0000 and just 000000 would be, this is something I am working on:

http://userunfriendly.com/newuu/

I think you've already got the colour you're looking for - white! (FFFFFF)

**User_Unfriendly** · Oct 24, 2004 19:56

Yah, it looks like I am just going to be using red,black, and white! We will see what happens, it may be a little dull though.

**compwizard** · Oct 25, 2004 04:55

You could try using a gray tone instead of white....I don't have an exact color though.. you'd have to play around with it and see which looks best

**flanagan** · Oct 25, 2004 06:55

Hi there,

I have a nice little script that allows you choose the background colour and text colours including links as you click on each colour on the chart.

The end results are next to the colour chart so you can see each change as you make it.

If you would like to give it a try visit this page http://searchpartygraphics.com from where you can send me an email and I will let you have the script. It is a nifty little script.

Vicky

**lokjah** · Oct 25, 2004 14:13

I like meyers version as well.. but this one is excellent too..very few of these tools give you full screen width areas to see the colors.. its mixing tool rocks also

http://www.colorwhore.com

**SMARTin** · Oct 26, 2004 00:40

Originally Posted by User_Unfriendly

what do you think a good 3rd color for FF0000 and just 000000 would be, this is something I am working on:

http://userunfriendly.com/newuu/

Important design principle : Less is more!

Go with the red and black (and white/gray).
A third color dosnt make things less dull, - most likely it will make the design less 'tight'.

If i was in your shoes, i would maybee work a little on choosing a slightly different red.

**User_Unfriendly** · Oct 26, 2004 22:42

What color would you suggest. I think that red works well from my end, you think it is maybe to bright?

**PrintingGuru** · Oct 28, 2004 17:34

Is it a matter of taste or experience to know these things? Is there a good site where I can good ideas? Suggestions are very much appreciated.

Full Color Printing

**Egor** · Oct 29, 2004 07:07

Experience, and company brand guidelines sometimes. Would you do microsofts site using green as the primary color and use a script font for the body copy?

**tarun hari** · Nov 3, 2004 19:55

nice links, these will come in handy!

**Cory** · Nov 4, 2004 08:59

I've gone to my local hardware store in the paint section and picked up as many color swatches as I could. These usually have excellent examples of how to coordinate colors well; usually base, trim, and accents. Most schemes for painting your home fall in one of four major categories - Cool, Warm, Neutral, or Bright. The advantage of doing this is you can present them to clients and watch their face as they look at them. It will give you a pretty good indication of what color schemes they lean toward. I also pay attention of how local businesses use colors. Especially when it is obvious that they hired a professional decorator. Have you every paid attention to the colors used inside your local Starbucks coffee shop? How about Toys-R-Us? What mood do these colors set off?

**colorspots** · Nov 8, 2004 12:16

http://meddle.dzygn.com/tests/colors/#

**Logus** · Nov 9, 2004 10:22

I usually go to templatemonster.com and just pick a color scheme I'm comfortable with..

**Max Powers** · Nov 20, 2004 03:20

I figured I would see my favorite on the list. I have picked up many sources from this thread and wanted to add my personal fave...

Color Lab by Visibone allows you to see several colored backgrounds and text from each of the other selected colors.

The tool is limited to the 216-color palette and would perhaps best be used to find 'major' colors of a page such as links, text, and background color combo's.

The results are instant and the color selection area is a work of art for a color selection tool.

**Bob B** · Mar 10, 2005 14:42

Try www.visibone.com online and their charts are great.

**scattermachine** · Mar 16, 2005 00:13

I recently bought a book called 'The Color Index' and I like it.

Does anyone else own it? Any opinions?

Most of the reviews on this page are great...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

**htmlguy** · Mar 16, 2005 19:00

Zen Garden is a website and a book that shows you the best color combinations and images that go well with each other. Another book is their newest The Zen Of CSS. You should get this if you make a lot of websites.
Hope this helps,
HTMLGuy

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