2.8. Color Tools and Resources

Now we all have a basic understanding of how colors are represented as hexadecimal values. The next step is to find out those values for each color with which we want to work. Many resources are available to help you choose colors for your palette, including a ton of stand-alone applications and plugins for both Macs and PCs. Here are a few of my favorites:

2.8.1. Color Scheme Designer 3

Although there are many online color pickers out there, my favorite is Color Scheme Designer (formerly known as the WellStyled Color Scheme Generator), shown in Figure 2-36. Where many other applications use an RGB or CMYK color wheel, this awesome HTML tool uses the traditional red, yellow, and blue color wheel. With just a few clicks, you can choose and customize a color scheme, as well as identify a variety of other colors from which to build a harmonious palette. Once you have a palette you like, you can use the Vision Simulator to see what those colors look like to people with various levels of color blindness; then you can export your colors as HTML/CSS, XML, Text, a Photoshop palette, or a GIMP palette.