Adobe's Kuler (coverage) is neat for finding color schemes that are aesthetically pleasing, but what about when you want to figure out what colored text will look like on a colored background? You can either spend time trying each combination in something like Dreamweaver, or by using this handy tool, which lets you select a background then the secondary color (for something like text) by just hovering over each color hash with your mouse.
Even if you're not a cutting edge Web designer it's pretty fun. Plus, once you've found your colors you can match them up with Flickr photos using Kuler's latest release.
(Found on Delicious)
Swatches may have lost their cool in the '80s, but these color samples are timeless for Web designers. This tool lets you figure out what's hot and cool by just mousing over the colors.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Adobe Kuler with Flickr image
Although I've yet to find a personal use for it, I've always been intrigued by Adobe's Kuler technology. Most of the implementations we've seen so far, which includes the Web site and integration into Adobe Illustrator, have targeted at generating shareable color palettes from individual user-specified colors or from palette-color drawings. But Adobe extends that to continuous-tone imagery for Flickr users, who can load images into Kuler to generate image-based palettes. John Nack describes how use it (he doesn't explicitly state that you launch it from Kuler, not from Flickr, which confused me for a minute).
The software automatically selects various color points in the image, which you can change simply by dragging the circles. Selecting different "moods" swaps various colors in and out. Maybe it's the images I selected, but I find the different moods produce very similar results. In Illustrator, it can generate palettes based on color "Harmony rules"--complementary, analagous, shades, and so on--and it'd be neat if it could, say, pick the most frequently occurring color in the image and generate palettes by hunting for the nearest color matches within the photo that meet those criteria. The whole idea is also conceptually related to a recently released WordPress theme that does similar color extractions to automate your photoblog design on-the-fly to match your photos.
That said, while playing with the tool I couldn't help but imagine the even neater things Chris Harrison might be able to visualize using a set of palettes returned by the mass of Flickr users. If you haven't seen his stuff, check it out. Pretty amazing.
Kuler lets users create and rate color schemes.
(Credit: Adobe)I missed this tidbit while out on vacation earlier this month, but I figured there still might be some interest among folks who want to revamp their Web sites with an ever-changing palette of user-supplied color schemes: Adobe Systems has opened the interface to its Kuler service.
Kuler is a collection of more than 19,000 user-supplied and user-ranked color schemes, each combining five colors. Adobe has made RSS feeds available that cover the highest rated, most popular and newest schemes at the site.
"We're excited to see what you come up with, and we plan to feature the best applications in a Showcase Gallery on Adobe Labs," Adobe said in a blog entry.
(Credit:
Adobe Systems)
Adobe released the public beta of its Adobe AIR runtime environment (previously codenamed Apollo) about a month ago. The software is designed to allow the development of rich Internet applications that work on any operating system. I'm sure that there are technical differences, but it seems a lot like an amped-up widget engine to me.
Needless to say, AIR apps aren't nearly as ubiquitous as Adobe Flash apps (yet), but there have been a few interesting recent developments. The most-polished AIR application so far is Adobe Digital Editions, software for reading, downloading, and managing e-books. To learn more about it, check Seth Rosenblatt's First Look video for Adobe Digital Editions.
While Adobe Digital Editions might be the most powerful AIR app so far, the one with the most buzz is definitely the Pownce desktop client, a tool for sending content to your Pownce buddies and the Pownce Web site. (Pownce is currently in private alpha; jump down to the bottom of this post for info about how to request an invitation.) ... Read more
Kuler is a free tool from Adobe Labs that lets users design and share color schemes for use in Web sites or other projects. If you've ever designed a Web site or PowerPoint presentation before, you know that choosing a color scheme is often trial and error. Kuler lets you tune up to five different colors at once and makes the process surprisingly easy, allowing users to simply adjust selectors over a large color wheel. Users can then go deeper, adjusting the finer details of a color, and Kuler makes small adjustments to make sure the other colors will be compatible.
For nondesigners, Kuler is still fun to play around with. If you end up creating any color sets you want to use, you can save and export them to use with any of Adobe's Creative Suite 2 applications. For home-improvement enthusiasts, Kuler provides extensive color information like CMYK and RGB values, which your local paint store might be able to match.
Kuler runs right in your browser. Try it here.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
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