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A Free Mini-Guide by Robin Good
One of the most difficult tasks for visual communicators is selecting harmonious color combinations. Though we all feel we have the capability to select appropriate colors — in reality we've realized that's not true and it's difficult for those without a design background to find good color matches.
In consolation, perfect color combinations are the results of perfect mathematical equations. Exact and precise differences in light tone, color and saturation create pleasing and harmonious combinations, just like the ones great master artists have created.
Apply this knowledge along with interactive learning and visualization tools and you start find perfect color matches and combinations.
Thankfully, a few people have done this work and you can enjoy the thrill of interactive visual color matching by using unique tools.
Here are four gems to facilitate selecting perfect color combinations:
a) Andrew Mundi - Web Color Theory
b) Sessions.edu - Color Calculator
c) Color-Wheel-Pro
d) Colorimpact
If you know of others, please share them in the comments section where others have been mentioned. Also, we include recommended readings at the end of this mini-guide. If you ever need to refer to color-related definitions and terminology, a great place to start is Wikipedia's color entry.
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23) Color Scheme Designer
Color Scheme Desgner is a web-based tool that generates matching colors to use in your design works.
You can either pick a color or spin the color wheel to find complementary colors of your choice. Different options allow you to display colors in analogic mode, triad, tetrad, accented analogic and also find different shades of a monochromatic color. You can even set different options for your color like brightness and saturation and export your color palette in HTML+CSS, XLS, Text, ACO and GPL file formats.
Price: Free.
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22) ColorToy 2.0
ColorToy 2.0 is a Flash-based color scheme generator and picker.
ColorToy 2.0 generates complementary color schemes based on a set of color values you decide. The service also generates random color combinations if you do not have a set of colors to start with. Color values are accepted either in RGB and HEX formats.
Price: Free.
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21) Instant Color Schemer
Instant Color Schemes is a color matching utility that provides color codes which you can use in your web design or graphic design projects.
You just choose a color combination (e.g. green apple, blue sky, cyan, etc.) and Instant Color Schemer will elaborate the results and give you a color palette of matching colors. Each color has a code you can use inside the source pages of your website.
Price: Free.
