: Color Intervals For 0to255.com Online Tool I'm a developer trying to learn more and practice better graphic design. One of the tools I love to use is Shaun Chapman's http://0to255.com as it
I'm a developer trying to learn more and practice better graphic design. One of the tools I love to use is Shaun Chapman's 0to255.com as it easily let's you pick good variations on a base color for use in highlights, borders, etc.
I've always been interested in how the range of colors that is output is created. From the about page on 0to255.com:
Simply pick the color that you want to start with and 0to255 gives you a range of colors from black to white using an interval optimized for web design.
Can anybody give me a clue what this interval would be or some guidelines? I'd love to know just for personal growth how these are calculated so I can get some practice picking good color variations manually instead of relying on a tool that I don't quite understand the inner workings of.
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The statement itself is somewhat a "gimmick" in that it has nothing to do with being optimized for web design; modern browsers are capable of displaying millions of colors.
However, it is not too difficult to understand what the author is doing.
One way of representing colors is the HSL (hue, saturation, and lightness) model, and it seems like the author of the site you've linked to is using that model to divide the lightness parameter (which ranges from 0 to 100%) into 31 units.
You can see, for instance, that the page for the color represented by the hex value #483D8B , when you hover over the color, it mentions "39%". Compare the color to that found on this page: www.colorcodehex.com/483d8b/. Note also the HSL value: 248°, 39%, 39%. It's that last value that needs to change to change the lightness or darkness of the color.
Check out this site and try entering the following HSL values: { 248, 39, 0 }, { 248, 39, 10 }, { 248, 39, 20 } etc
Modern web browsers should allow you to use HSL values in your CSS as follows:
p {
background-color:hsl(248,39%,75%)
}
Otherwise, the site you linked to is more of a convenience for grabbing the hex values for the colors.
The main page states '9,540,279 colors and counting', so I guess it isn't just based on web colors. It seems like the intervals are pretty arbitrary, and the site just makes it easy for you to pick a spot along the continuum. Can't think of anything else really.
It looks like this site focuses on light and shadow, which mostly happens by playing with the brightness (and saturation) of a color.
I recommend Adobe Kuler, a free webservice, if you want to experiment with this stuff and find some nice color schemes. It has an interface which allows you to find complementing colors based on a whole range of constraints. (Hue, brightness, etc.)
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