: Is there a good resource or tool to help build a palette/color scheme around colors I select? No matter how nice the composition, flow, and lines of my design are, if I am not copying directly

@Jessie844

One amazing tool for creating color palettes, that I believe to be a hidden gem
is Adobe Capture CC. I discovered it while watching an Adobe Live stream event.

It is a free app, available for both ios and android that automatically generates the color palette of a photo you take with your camera.

If you go on a walk in the park, visit a museum or just stumble upon a chromatically impressive sight, you can get that color palette within minutes.

The app also gives you the ability to turn a paper sketch directly into a vector. You draw it on paper, you photograph it and voila. No more importing pictures and tracing with the pen tool.

I encourage everybody to check it out!

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@Debbie163

I would definitely suggest
ColorPK

It loads more fast and clean to me,

and It also could extract color from image

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@Margaret771

Some resource that I have found useful listed below when picking colors.


AI with Colormind: Tool using AI and large sample of "good" designs/artwork/prints to generate color combinations. Also possible to supply your own colors and generating complementing colors. colormind.io/ Structured rules: Many other good answers on HSB and other approaches/theories. This page takes a stab at it with clear rules on how to do it and with ok results. tallys.github.io/color-theory/

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@Vandalay110

I'd suggest checking colorsupplyyy.com It is a good tool for color generating and uses color palettes from the best designers around the world!

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@Turnbaugh909

There are a lot out there, but here are some of my favorite generators. Most listed allow you to enter in your own color like you specified.


ColorFavs - Palette from image as well as gallery of palettes & colors from other's images
Pictaculous - Palette from image (opposite is image from color)
Palettr - Palettes from theme or place
Cohesive Colors - New palette formed by old palette + color overlay
Poke Palettes - Palettes based on Pokemon
Colour Lovers - Palettes based on color or combination
Handy Colors - Palettes from named colors (handy for testing) and some pre-made palettes
Color by HailPixel - Generator
ColourCo.de - Generator
Adobe Color CC - Generator
Coolors - Generator
Color Supply - Generator of 2-color palettes


There are also some sites that give you pre-made palettes, including those of popular brands


Google's Material palette generator - Generate material color templates according to their design guidelines (well, close)
Tint UI - Brand color palettes
Brand Colors - Brand colors
The Day's Color - New palette daily
Minimalist Color Palettes - A great selection of hand picked palettes
lolcolors - Pre-selected palettes
Website color schemes - Color schemes with adjective descriptions
Colors - computer generated palettes
Color Hunt - Mutliple palettes daily


There are also some sites that offer gradient combinations which you can get the color codes from:


uiGradients
Grabient
Webgradients


If you still can't find a color palette somehow, this repo has some additional resources.

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@Merenda852

Check out this can help out you more.
galacticmilk.com/sphere/

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@YK2262411

First and foremost: familiarise yourself with the HSB colour model. HSB defines a colour by:


Hue: kind of colour, as in: pick one from a rainbow—in degrees;
Saturation: inverse of the amount of added white—in percent;
Brightness: inverse of the amount of added black—in percent.


A good rule of thumb would be to sample the existing brand colours and determine their Hue value. At first, stick to those H values and start varying the S and B values. This creates colours that harmonise well with the existing colours almost by definition.

If you really, really need a contrasting colour and the only way is to use a different H value, try and determine first how the existing colours' H values are related. You can then build upon that relation to create new hues.

Are the two colours 180° apart? Then you might want to add 90° to either of them to create a third hue to work with. Are they 40° apart? Add 40° to one of the colour values or subtract 40° from the other to get an analogue colour setting. Or, take the average of the two H values and then invert the result (add or subtract 180°, whichever gives you a positive number less than 360) to create a split complementary colour setting.

Then start fiddling with the new hue's S and B values.

Don't forget to take a step back, and adjust the H value you calculated when the result isn't up to your expectations. Exactly calculated H values are great, but they're only a tool—don't hesitate to edit things a litte to make it look better aesthetically.

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@Odierno310

Part 3 of a three part series on colour theory applies directly to this question.

Creating Your Own Color Palettes

Great explanation on choosing your own colour scheme based on the colour wheel. (taken from this stackexchange question)

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@Bethany839

Usually, I use the color picker to pick colors directly from pictures i'm working with. That way, I'm sure the colors are gonna match. It's easy and fast when you dont have much time to put on your project.

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@Twilah924

Check out www.colourlovers.com/ for all things colour.

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@Holmes874

Photoshop CS5 has an extension called Kuler that does this.

You can reach it through the menu; Window/Extensions/Kuler
or through the website, kuler.adobe.com/

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@Correia448

I've found colourlovers.com a very useful resource for constructing color schemes.
But if you want to have a better idea of using contrast and harmony as a tool to improve your design you should read color theory. I personally liked Wucious Wung's Principles of Color Design and Josef Albers' Interaction of Color

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@Ogunnowo857

You need to read about a good book of color theory to understand at least the general principle, for example on what is Primary and Secondary color, Complementary colors etc... otherwise you will not get the importance of some palette choices that you will make.

On the web my favourite at the moment one is: Kuler of Adobe , as well I used to use colorschemedesigner.com/ already mentioned.

I suggest to have a quick read about SIMULTANEOUS AND SUCCESSIVE CONTRAST where the association of color make feel that a color on a different background look different.

Even if you didn't ask me I suggest to have at hand for checking that colors of website have a good contrast for readability I use this: graybit.com/main.php

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@Jamie315

One useful tool is Paletton (previously known as Color Scheme Designer):

You specify a starting color and a type of color scheme and it will generate a palette for you and allow you to modify that palette.

The nice thing about this tool is that you can see how it chooses the other colors based on the color you select. There is also a tool to simulate how those colors would look with different kinds of color blindness.

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@Speyer780

You can always go to your local Home Depot or Lowe's, head for the paint department, and pick up some of their sample room flyers. :)

Or more seriously, here's a description of how color schemes work.

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