I’m starting a series called Designer Toolbox featuring various tools that I use frequently, as a designer. All the tools are web based and may include organization tools, resources, downloads, tutorials, etc. Today, I want to share the color tools I use quite often.

Adobe Kuler

When I am creating color schemes, I enjoy using Adobe Kuler. A Flash web tool, Kuler allows users to create color schemes utilizing color properties such as monochromatic, triad, complementary, etc. Users can save, share, and download their color schemes for use in Adobe Creative Suite programs.

A very neat feature is the ability to choose colors from an image. The user can upload an image or choose one from Flickr, and Kuler automatically retrieves an editable color scheme.

The themes community is a nice way to share color schemes or find inspiration. Users can download or save other color schemes, share and tag their own, or discuss the color schemes.

Use Adobe Kuler

Colour Lovers

In many ways, Colour Lovers is much better than Adobe Kuler. Kuler is good if you want to just quickly create a color scheme. Colour Lovers allows the user to create and share colors, palettes, and patterns. The pattern creator is amazing. The user can specify their own colors and styles to create beautiful patterns for design projects.

The community at Colour Lovers is large. There are many different groups, blogs, boards, and ways to share colors and patterns. It is a great place for color research, color inspiration, and designing new schemes.

There are too many features to explain here. Definitely give Colour Lovers a try, especially if you love…color.

Multicolr Search Lab

Need to find Creative Commons Flickr photos with specific colors? This tool is extremely useful.

The user selects a color or colors and photos from Flickr are immediately retrieved with the specified colors. If you only choose blue, photos that are mostly blue are retrieved. If you choose blue and purple, photos with blue and purple are retrieved. You get the idea.

Check out the Multicolr Search Lab

There are dozens of useful color tools on the web. Share your favorites.