Feature: Color Code Tools - Put colors in Context then make your choices
Motivation: Deciding a color theme/palette for your image designs made easier

SaaS-Software as a Service has a best known example - all the "free" programs and functions like search, maps, mail and dozens of others made available on the Web by Google. But of course these services are hardly free. Google makes lots of money by discretely placing ads in many of the services - if not on the main page, perhaps on derived/linked to pages. Well the same SaaS philosophy has started to emerge in the complex and very subjective arena of color wheels and choices.

These color SaaS services offer variations on color wheels and choices. I highlight the ones I have found useful for color choosing both in the Web context and the broader graphic design arena. Some we can show directly here in the review and others we have to link through a screenshot to the original site. Here are some of the sites we have found useful.


SitePro Central's Color Chart

Place this HTML Color Code tool on your website free. | Professional Turnkey Websites

This site not only has one of the better color wheels but also a wealth of information for site creation including design tips, coding/scripting resources, and hundreds of templates. So if your work is web related going here is well worth the time.

But the next setting is equally important. In the righthand panel, there is a pull down labeled Scheme. Here you are given 7 choices (Monochromatic, Analogic, Analogic+compliment Complimentary, Split Complimentary, Triadic, Deep Contrast) for what variations on the base hues you want to see in the color cube just below. This is your color styling choice - what scheme and variation you want to explore. These Schemes are very helpful - as is the whole Sitepro Color Chart.

Visibone 216 Web Colors

This chart is not nearly as versatile as the SitePro Color chart above, but it has the virtue of showing just the 216 Web Safe colors. A friend calls them the primary Web colors - and generally they are vivid and punchy as befits the Web. Of course most Web browsers and programs (not to mention PC color monitors) can display a much broader selection of colors than the Web 216; but for efficiency and certainty working within the 216 Web colors is very helpful - particularly for kiosks and mobile apps.

Michigan State University: Color Theory and Exploration

Michigan State University has a wonderful article with some very clever web examples illustrating color combination theory. Just click the white, gray, or black dots to change the background color and to see the color combinations in different contexts. Use the right or left bracket to change the position on the color wheel. For those interested in CSS and Web page design - use your browser's Page Source command to see how all this is done. Good theory, clever Web design.

Well Styled

One of the earliest and still one of the best color wheels for graphic and web color design:

This Czech bit of color leger de main is highly recommended. It took me about two or three minutes to change the old Bookraft.com web design to the color scheme shown above. This is one of the best tools available for color choosing - and the the six buttons along the bottom: Default, Pastel, Dark pastel, Light Pastel, Contrast, Pale along with the pulldown just below for how the colors will be perceived by those with different color blindness/deficiencies put this wheel in class by itself.

Other Color Sources

Color Lovers - see literally hundreds of palettes and commentary and what is being done in the print and fashion world with colors. This is the Ugly Betty place to be for Color and Design usage.

Color Blender - the tile says it all, this site
blends two colors together in steps, very helpful.

Color Mixers- is another nifty color blender/mixer; you can get free source code for it.

Color Schemer - another blend tool but much much brightness aware.

Red Alt - tells you what the color scheme is for any website; quite practical