Everyone, from UI Designers to 3D Artists, needs help finding the perfect colour palette for their projects, and luckily there’s an abundance of online tools out there which do just that!
Before talking you through our favourites, let us share a few of our insights about colour and why it’s such a core element of any design.
Colour is a vital communication aid, which helps to convey the essence of a brand, meaning you must consider what a colour represents and whether it’ll appeal to your target audience.
Colours have a strong impact on customers’ attitudes, emotions and moods; for example orange evokes feelings of warmth, enthusiasm, creativity and more.
Famous English physicist and mathematician, Sir Isaac Newton, was the brains behind the first colour wheel in 1706, so it’s thanks to him we’ve got multiple styles of colour palettes to pick from.
Monochromatic – various hues, tones and shades of the same colour.
Analogous – hues that sit side by side on the colour wheel.
Complementary – opposites on the colour wheel.
Split-complementary – any colour on the wheel, plus the two that sit either side of its complement.
Triadic – any three colours that are evenly spaced on the colour wheel.
Square – any four colours that are evenly spaced on the colour wheel.
Tetradic (or double-complementary) – two pairs of complementary colours.
Now we’ve got a better understanding of the importance of colour and the types of schemes you can choose between, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of which colour palette generators to use…
Adobe Color CC
Produces colour themes that can be used in Adobe apps on both mobile and desktop. Capture colour inspiration from scenes around you, use the interactive colour wheel or preset modes.
Colourcode
Move your mouse left to right to change hue, up and down for lightness, scroll for saturation and click to lock a scheme. Free build your palette or choose the style you want from the left sidebar.
Material Design Colour Palette
Develops an eight piece colour scheme based upon the primary and accent colours you select from the home page. It chooses everything for you from the text colour, to icons and dividers.
Material UI Colours
Google’s colour palette consists of primary and accent colours that have been designed to work in harmony. Click the ‘palette creator’ tab to see how it’ll look on Android, Web and iOS.
Coolors
Browse through recent popular palettes, or use the sliders at the top of each swatch to find a shade you like, lock it in and hit the space bar repeatedly until you uncover a scheme you love.
Remember these five colour palette tools are not the only ones available, so if you think we’ve missed a good one tell us on Twitter.
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