Working with color – this is the first thing that any designer should be able to do. There is a huge amount of scattered information on this topic on the Internet, I tried to collect the most useful information in one collection. Most of the utilities are with a web design bias.

Tools

Color Lovers is an old and functional tool for matching color schemes. Analogs – Colourcode, Color Scheme Designer and of course Kuler. There are a lot of similar sites, but these, in my opinion, are the most convenient.

Multicolr is a useful search engine that can find one or more colors of a photo on Flickr (over 10 million under Creative Commons license).

Check My Colors is a service that checks the readability of text on any website. The screenshot shows a part of Habr’s results.

Sphere – the choice of colors according to color theory, an almost scientific approach to choosing a palette

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0to255 – helps to subtly select the desired shade of color.

CSS Color Names – Visually showcases all 147 English color names.

Color Hexa is a small interactive color encyclopedia with useful features.

Color Blender – “blends” two colors, finding an intermediate

A table of “safe” colors that can be used in web design, from Art. Lebedev Studio. The thing is somewhat outdated, useful for general development rather than practical use.

Color Palette Generator – creates a color palette for any image.

color.hailpixel.com – full screen color selection, convenient.

Flat UI Colors is a simple color selection service from Designmodo’s Flat UI set.

Articles

The Wikipedia articles on Color and Color List are helpful as an introduction.

An article about color theory on Habré.

A must-read series on color from Smashing Magazine with a focus on web design, theory and practice:

1. Color Theory For Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color
2. Color Theory For Designers, Part 2: Understanding Concepts And Terminology
3. Color Theory For Designers, Part 3: Creating Your Own Color Palettes

Colors in Web Design: An Exploration – article on Six revisions, where practical examples explain the correct use of colors in web design.

An Introduction to Color Theory for Web Designers – article from Tutsplus for web designers about the use of colors on websites, including typography.

How to Calibrate Color for the Web – describes in detail the calibration of colors in images intended for the Internet.

Colors in Web Design: Choosing a right combination for your Website – article from 1stwebdesigner, which talks about the user’s perception of colors in web design.

20 color tips for website design – concise tips for the correct use of colors in web design.

Books and other useful reading material

Before I tell you about books, I should immediately guide you along the path of reducing the cost of reading design literature – the Telegram channel “Books for Designers” collects these and other useful books and upload them for free.

Color Art, by Johannes Itten (1888-1967) – one of the most popular books on color theory around the world. Available on Ozone.

Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design is a good book on using colors in design.

The Ultimate Guide to Fantastic Color Usage is not quite a book from Smashing Magazine, it’s just called that, it talks about color in a very practical and structured way, applied to web design.

The Psychology of Color is a handy guide to color perception.

UPD

By the way, we even dedicated a separate page to the modest charm of blue in design. Which was named “The beauty of blue in design”.

© rutm, habrahabr.ru