10 Tools to help you select a Web 2.0 Color Palette

April 5, 2007 | Comments (67) | Filed under: Tools

Well, another day and another entry in our Bookmark Bliss series here at Bookmark Bliss. I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to designing any interface my biggest roadblock has to be deciding on a color scheme. Whether it be a standalone application or a new web layout, I could come up with the best interface design but no one would care if the color scheme is an assault on the senses.

Lucky for me, there are a lot of helpful tools that can turn color coordination nightmares into a dream come true :) If you’re in the same boat as I am, have a look at some of these sites I unearthed from my bookmarks:

ColourLovers

EasyRGB

ColorBlender

ColorJack

Steel Dolphin Color Scheme Tool

DeGraeve.com Color Palette from Image Generator

Color Schemer

Kuler

Daily Color Scheme

Colr.org

The list is not too long, but really, how many different color resources do you need? My personal favorites are ColourLovers, EasyRGB, and Kuler. I really like the sites that allow people to submit their own color schemes and put together really comprehensive sets that include 5-10 different matching colors. These type of sites make it really easy to quickly choose one you like and incorporate it into your design immediately.

Have you found this list useful? If so, show your support by subscribing to our news feed. We’ve posted several other entries in our Bookmark Bliss series that you might find interesting as well…

  1. Bookmark Bliss: 50 Sources for Web Design Inspiration
  2. Bookmark Bliss: The Developer Cheat Sheet Compilation
  3. Bookmark Bliss: 30 Web Developer Community Forums
  4. Bookmark Bliss: 101+ Stock Image Resources

67 people have left comments

Thanks for the comprehensive list of color scheme links. I’ve used Color Schemer in the past for something (for the life of me I can’t remember what), and found it very useful. I plan to check out some of these other sites you mentioned very soon. My site’s color scheme needs a serious revamp but that is a project for another day. :)

Bret wrote on April 5, 2007 - 10:48 am | Visit Link

That’s cool man, I like all that have relation with 2.0, logos, design, Ajax,…

Frucomerci wrote on April 5, 2007 - 10:57 am | Visit Link

Kuler is the coolest one. I love that you can save out the color theme as a swatch library that you can use in any of the Adobe Suite.

Chris Coyier wrote on April 6, 2007 - 5:42 am | Visit Link

good list thanks.

how about this one?
http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/

zach wrote on April 6, 2007 - 3:29 pm | Visit Link

Not to snark, but the “Steel Dolphin” content is includeware from Siteprocentral (http://www.siteprocentral.com/html_color_code.html). I mean, hell, I’ve got this on -my- site.

Ogre Lawless wrote on April 6, 2007 - 4:19 pm | Visit Link

Great tools for layouts and every website making aspect!

Green Tea wrote on April 6, 2007 - 4:46 pm | Visit Link

Thanks for pointing out these resources. I like colorlovers, colorjack and dailycolorscheme.

yaph wrote on April 7, 2007 - 4:28 am | Visit Link
Shanti Town wrote on April 7, 2007 - 8:02 am | Visit Link

In my 30 year massive 3D hobby, now in VB6, for reasons I couldn’t yet articulate, I’ve never randomized the control of complimentary colors representing different forground and background color ranges for both the elements and constructs in my spinning Hamiltonan graphics. If I introduce this ’swatch’ idea, I could try allowing randomizing from among my 3D mappings to these lovely designs.

jimekus wrote on April 7, 2007 - 8:08 am | Visit Link

Great color tools. There’s a few on there that I have not seen before. I did post a while ago of my favorite tools. WellStyled.com’s color palette generator is my personal favorite. You can see the post here:

Top 7 Reasons Not to Guess Your Colors

Jason wrote on April 7, 2007 - 4:44 pm | Visit Link

Just in time, I was looking for something like this, I just came in from Digg.com. I have been using Kuler for most of my sites but you point out a lot of other great sites. These are great for color matching idiots like myself.

Dean wrote on April 8, 2007 - 12:12 am | Visit Link

What a about www.genopal.com that works without the color wheel and www.pic2color.com that gets colors from pictures.

sivam wrote on April 15, 2007 - 5:56 am | Visit Link

saygılarımla

servet wrote on April 15, 2007 - 11:08 am | Visit Link

Here’s another good one called, the color wizard:

http://www.colorsontheweb.com/thecolorwizard.asp

Gdog wrote on April 20, 2007 - 4:08 pm | Visit Link

Wow that kuler one is made by adobe? I thought it was the coolest one, but then noticed it was made by adobe. I wasn’t expecting that. But its really cool.

Motorcycle Guy wrote on April 25, 2007 - 6:37 pm | Visit Link

Great List, thanks. My fav is Kuler by far

Keith Donegan wrote on April 28, 2007 - 11:06 pm | Visit Link
isaid wrote on April 30, 2007 - 8:45 am | Visit Link

Wow! I wish I had come across this list sooner. Picking the colors is one of the biggest hassles for me when setting up a new site. Thanks for the help!

SEO blog wrote on May 4, 2007 - 11:24 am | Visit Link

Thanks for the list of tools, it’s much appreciated stark!

Mike wrote on May 9, 2007 - 6:35 am | Visit Link

Very useful list. Thanks for compiling them. Some of the sites you’ve listed are also mentioned in this blog

http://www.charchaa.com/practical_tips_for_selecting_a_color_scheme_for_your_website_six_tools_to_help_you_do_just_that

craigthomas wrote on May 11, 2007 - 5:22 pm | Visit Link

Awesome article, I’m starting a new site right now and will be using all of these tools to get a good color.

Paul wrote on July 23, 2007 - 4:56 pm | Visit Link

Very Cool, my blog is all grays and this will come in very handy for guys like me that don’t have an eye for color.

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