Product Review and Giveaway: Color Schemer Studio
Collis Ta'eed
Color or Colour as we like to spell it over here in Australia, is critical for designers of every medium. While finding a nice harmonious colour palette is something most of us do by eye, it is easy to fall back on the same few tried and tested palettes over and over. Personally I am very guilty of using beige in just about every site I design, case in point: FreelanceSwitch!
So today we are reviewing a product called Color Schemer Studio which aims to help you find the perfect colour palette for your next project. And for two lucky readers we’re giving away full licenses for the software, read on to find out how to get one!
How does it work?
Color Schemer Studio is a desktop application that runs on OSX and Windows and is basically a suite of tools to match colours up by showing you suggested colours to go with a single primary colour that you pick.
What is neat is that you can choose a single colour and then run through about 16 different options to generate your palette from Triads and Tetrads on a colour wheel to Complex and Muted suggestions as well as extra tools like the color mixer and photoschemer.
Features
Color Schemer Studio has a LOT of features to make your colour choosing easier, some of the cooler ones include:
- Everything You’d Expect: All the standard colour palette tools like sliders, spectrums, colour wheels and the like are present and easy to switch between
- Easy to Use: The interface and system are really easy to use and pick up. Within about 3 minutes of opening the software I had it pretty much figured out from top to bottom
- PhotoSchemer: The PhotoSchemer is my favourite feature of this program as it lets you load in a photo and then play around with choosing a palette based on colours in the photograph. This is neat because I often see a photo and think what nice colouring it has. Additionally you can randomize the feature so that it picks odd combinations for you
- Color Blindness Simulation: I don’t know how often I would need to use this feature, but it certainly is neat. And I imagine if you were in the business of making road signs or safety warnings or other work that has heavy reliance on colour for indication then you’d be damn happy you had it. As its name suggests the tool simulates what happens to people with different levels of colour blindness.
- Quick Preview: This tool lets you drag and drop colours into a little mini website template allowing you to see how your colour palette would actually sit next to each other in a real design (which is sometimes a far cry from seeing a bunch of little boxes lined up next to each other)
- Screen Picker: This tool lets you pick with an eyedropper any colour on your screen, very handy for stealing someone else’s awesome colour combination!
- Colour History and Favourites: If you are like me you’ll go through tons of colour palettes before settling on one, so it helps to have a history and favourites to help keep track.
PhotoSchemer is an ace feature and lets you make useof brilliant pictures to plan your palette
Related Products and Sites
There are a variety of other colour tools out there, here are a couple other links to check out:
Our Favourite Colour Site - ColourLovers.com
Adobe’s Kuler - Kuler.Adobe.com
The Lowdown
The Good
- A lot of features you don’t get in a free colour tool like history, favourites, photoschemer etc
- Easy to Use
- Generates a LOT of combinations for the colour you choose
- Randomizing features help you when you have designer’s block
The Not So Good
- Getting your colours when you’re done took me a little while to get the hang of and involves one too many steps in my opinion
- Targetted at web users so missing any CMYK tools (though this is relatively easy to do in Photoshop/Illustrator)
Price
Free to try a fully functional version for 15 days
$49.99 to buy with Lifetime Support
Get it here: colorschemer.com
The Giveaway!
Thanks to the good folks at ColorSchemer we have two full licences to give away to FreelanceSwitch readers. All you have to do is complete the following sentence and leave it in the comments:
My favourite colour is _________ because __________
e.g. “My favourite colour is beige because it makes every design warm and friendly looking!”
We’ll give out the one license to the funniest or most original comment (I’ll judge which that is) and one license to a random commenter!
You have until Friday 1pm Sydney Time (you can check Sydney time here) to enter!
Oh and make sure when you comment that you fill in the email field, it won’t show up to other users but it will allow us to have a way to contact you with your prize!
Would you like your product reviewed?
Got a product you’d like reviewed here on FreelanceSwitch? Contact Us to let us know. You’ll need to provide a copy for review as well as a couple of licenses, memberships or passes to give away to our readers. Note that with time restrictions we cannot review all products submitted (but we do our best!)
Shawn Grimes
May 14th, 2007
My favourite color is blue because that is what I’ll be if I don’t win one of these licenses.
William Wilkinson
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is white because it is so simple!
Rick
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is Beige because it’s nuetral, making the rest of the colors pop.
Scott G
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is #fff, because it reminds me of marshmallows.
Steven Jarvis
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is puce because saying it out loud never fails to make my four-year-old son laugh.
mujiri
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is awesome because that’s the other name for colors
Kenny
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is blue because it’s original.
If you don’t get the double entendre, it’s not my problem.
Marc Amos
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is impossible to choose, because there are so many great ones out there.
Kelly
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is black. . . because everything else is racist.
Jaime
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is green beacause it’s the color of money, it reminds me apples, green ones, and i like the apples, especially THE Apple, you know what I mean? But this one is white, uhmm, so green and white mixed down give us… some kind of pastel green. I like the pastel green because it looks like mint, and I like mint, especially when it is covering chocolate, wich is brown, if I have green, white and brown… Ok, enoguh. I hope you get the point, because I can’t get it. oO.
John
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is chocolate brown; because chocolate brown my friends, is the new black.
Camel
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is green; it has a nice ring to it when you articulate it with a slight smile.
Steve Madsen
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is red because you can never be to well.
Wayde Christie
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is blue… no yellow - arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!
Mickey
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is purple because that’s the colour of love shared between me and my girlfriend.
Shane
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is maroon …
because I can’t choose between my 3 favorite colours which are black, white, and red. So I mixed them all together one time … huh … so that’s maroon.
Avital Gertner
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is DEEP (purple-brown) RED as it represents everything that is passionate to me.
Chris Huff
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is Web 2.0 because all your base are belong to us.
Timothy Diokno
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is green - green as in for green minded people… NOT! Just kidding. It’s for something gooey, like every article that you make is filled with humor and it gets stuck in your mind like a mucus or something and hard to wash it off. Oh and one more thing it’s like kinda extreme because if there’s a new black, this my friend is the new red!
Rhys
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is R:246 G:242 B:235 because it’s the colour of my wife’s face when the sun is rising on a early Sunday morning, when we camp outside around the camp fire, about an hour NW from Captains Flat in NSW.
Pawel
May 14th, 2007
Ah, I will go against the crowd - there’s an entirely free app that does the same thing. It’s called Kuler and it’s been developed by the lovely guys at Adobe Labs. You can test it here: http://kuler.adobe.com/
Jens
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is brown because you can make both the best things and the smelliest things with it. (if you now what I mean)
Greg Abbott
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is green because it’s green.
Ahsan
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is still not chosen because I need Color Schemer Studio’s PhotoSchemer to see which one goes with my happy face!
Nikolay
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is red, because it look good on black and white images.
Benek
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is black because everyone is always trying to be the new black. There will never be a new black. It’s an old colour (I believe according to historians it was invented 3600 years before the birth of red) and it will always remain an old colour.
My real favourite colour is hot pink because Barbie wears it and it makes my eyeballs bleed.
Jamie Lewis
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is black because it isn’t a colour at all but rather the absence off colour!
Anton Muraviev
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is red, because it conveys all emotions that make me tick.
Shane
May 14th, 2007
After reading Greg Abbott’s comment, I’m formally withdrawing my entry from the contest …
I just can’t go up against that kind of clarity.
Jimmy Jules
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is Pink because its a very attractive and sexy colour to me when used correctly, I’ve always loved it since I was little, I always get hassled for having pink as my favourite colour being a male.
Steven Pam
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is moogoo because I just made that up.
tsk
May 14th, 2007
My favourite color is deep orange (#ff6600) because it gets me running like a squirrel on caffeine in the morning.
Joel Laumans
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is hard to find, because I don’t have Color Scheme Studio
Emil
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is Orange because orange things taste good
Marc
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is 0×00FFFFFF because I like transparency.
Jurgen Visser
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour (notice the ou instead of o (twice) ;)) is orange, because:
while(jvsFavColour == “orange”){
“…it reminds me of wednesday (not a clue why, but it does) and wednesday is the day when i get home from school early so I can go on webdesigning and using the lovely colour called orange, which is my favourite colour because…”;
}
//Keep reading as long as orange is still my favourite colour. (those of you not into programming probably won’t get this one :))
By the way i’m from Holland where orange is the national colour.
Vicki
May 14th, 2007
My fave colour is black because it’s ever classy and everything goes with it.
Ryan Allen
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is whatever my client says because he pays the bills!
Gerry
May 14th, 2007
My fave colour is green cause it’s a lean green billing machine!
Rajesh Shakya
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is brown because its warm and less straining.
Rajesh Shakya
http://www.rajeshshakya.com
Wolf
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is black because it doesn’t involve any ******* light.
Jake
May 14th, 2007
Cyan is my favorite color because it is the color of my favorite wallpaper.
Dustin Brewer
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is green because everything looks awesome in it.
Sahil
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is white because when you get lazy you can claim emptyness as white space.
- Sahil.
The Thinking Blog
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is red because it’s HOT, HOT, HOT!
Ali
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is blood red because it’s the sum of all fears
Ray
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is #9da900 because it makes me most likely to win. You know why
Ben Dalton
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is aqua (aka, blue-green) because green usually means go, green means life and growth (especially in the plant world), blue is the color of the oceans and the sky, and, combined, these two colors represent my huge forward-motion, skyward-bound positive energy! (oh boy, I really have had my coffee this morning.)
WaterLover
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is purple because it inspires me to be creative.
David
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is purple, the color of royalty.
By the way, the color blindness simulation is very important for web designers concerned with accessibility.
Jason Leveille
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is #B00BEE for obvious reasons!
Jonathan
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is black because a black website uses less energy than a white website.
Robert Dempsey
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is white because it is the blank slate from which all creativity stems.
David Boyer
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is orange because nothing rhymes with it. Plus, they’re tasty and keep me from getting scurvy.
Alan
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is mauve because it always caused a fight about how to say it.
E.T.Cook
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is sage, because it makes me sound pretentious.
Jeff
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is burgundy because it’s the color of red wine.
Tony
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is Color Schemer because I want the free software.
Anthony Bullock
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is White because it leaves room for endless possibility.
moltar
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is _________ because __________
Collin
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is black because it absorbs all colors within the visible spectrum and doesn’t reflect any of them, and gets away with being a color when it is not.
Collin
May 14th, 2007
Robert Dempsey: that was poetic. I vote you so far =)
Tony Espinoza
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is navy blue because it gives the impression of darkness without resorting to plain black.
Alvin
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is… what’s the question again?
Taylor
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is grey because of its versatility. Helps a partially color-blind designer out a lot.
Joseph Hollak
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is easily coordinated with other appropriate colors because I will be using ColorSchemer.
Antonio Pratas
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is brown because thats the color I see everytime I have to work all night long and when I’m drinking a loooot of coffee to see if I can keep working while struggling to stay awake while working for clients that don’t care if a site is red or blue or purple or yellow, they just want to see a lot of color and little things moving and text on marquees and their company name huuuge! And because it’s a pretty color.
Adnan
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is blue because its the colour of the bestest football (soccer) team in the whole wide world! (That’s Chelsea FC if you didn’t already know!)
Andrej Mlinarević
May 14th, 2007
My favourite color is pink becouse roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so is the licence for Color Shemer Studio.
Tom 2Dforever
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is brown because everyone can see it… - the colour blindness simulator. I actually use the colour blindness features of these programs working with visually disables clients
Ryan
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is black because it contains all other colors. (In a way, it’s like saying “All of the above”.)
Stacey
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is black, because it offers so many design possibilities. Almost any color looks more dynamic on black, and with the right accents it can offer you any sort of mood or tone you want to achieve, whether it be something dark and moody or something meant to pop out and wow your audience.
Ricky Irvine
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is green because I am a winner!
madMUHHH
May 14th, 2007
My favourite color is blue, because it’s not red.
Ulf
May 14th, 2007
Any color that solves a problem for me and my clients is my favorite.
Corey Csuhta
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is light grey, because it provides a neutral frame for your digital workspace, and your can darken it to make a great base for other colors.
Julian Schrader
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is changing because there are different implementations.
@Ryan: I do digital stuff, print on very rare occasions—therefore my favourite colour is WHITE because it contains all other colors.
Richard
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is blue mixed with red mist, because that is the colour I see when I know Windows has crashed!
Harry
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is pink because flamingos necks are actually quite tasty things when blended with seagulls and other small birds like falcons.
Michel
May 14th, 2007
“Colorful is My Favorite Color” because Walter Gropius told that - and, of course, I work with colors
Christian Lopez
May 14th, 2007
My favorite color is flesh tone, because [CENSORED].
Steve D
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is green (emeraldy) because it’s my wife’s eye colour and if I didn’t say that I’d be sleeping in the doghouse bathroom where it would be the predominant colour of both the walls, and me from the smell!
So yeah, I love my wife very, very much!
Kenny Hyder
May 14th, 2007
Ryan: Actually white is the combination of all colors. Black would be the combination of all pigments…
I would have to say my favorite color is Google, cause everybody uses it!
John Brougher
May 14th, 2007
My favourite colour is neon tangerine, because it also is my favorite fruit.
Ara Abcarians
May 14th, 2007
My favorite colour is RED because after 72 hours of straight design work and no sleep, it is the only color my bloodshot eyes can see.
Jeff
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is SIROGETEUS (sir-ah-geh-tooce) because it’s not really a color and it confuses the hell out of everyone.
Kevinn
May 15th, 2007
My favourite color is navy blue because its cool, unversally accepted with a sense of corporate-y vibe.
James Lytle
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is purple monkey dishwasher because it always makes you laugh.
Paulo Canabarro
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is white because it’s simple, like winning this.
Jermayn Parker
May 15th, 2007
I never used to have a favourite colour because as a designer I thought it would limit my options as a designer to fully explore the whole colour chart. This all changed when we came up with a colour for my freelance business JP2 Designs…
We choose this lime greenish colour and ever since then, I would have to say that the lime green and or a green colour in general would be my favourite. Why??? Well it has so many options with different colour variations and it can nearly be included in any design and I would have to say that Green is the new black :p
Steve Dangerfield
May 15th, 2007
my favourite colour is octarine because it magically matches anything!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Discworld_concepts#Octarine
Rance
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is gray because the world isn’t black and white, it is grayscale.
…….
I have to say as a color blind user I wish more designers would take a closer look at that little used option. You would be surprised how often text is nearly impossible to read, menus disappear completely because of some subtle color variation, and design effects are lost. Funny thing that you mention road signs, the red-yellow-green traffic lights used in the US aren’t color blind safe, I use the position of the light to know what color it is. A bit scary eh.
Albert Omoss
May 15th, 2007
my favorite color is light green because it invokes the idea of the organic in the mind.
Zac
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is get up from your computer, go outside, and look at something beautiful in nature. No matter how good your graphic design skills are, you have to admit that you can’t digitize the vibrance of nature.
Jaysin
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is beige because it makes every design warm and friendly looking!
I’m not clever enough to compete so I’ll just try for the random draw
Paul
May 15th, 2007
My favourite color is red because you can mix me anyway you like and I will still look good.
Paul
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is blue because the sky is so blue.
vincent martinez
May 15th, 2007
my favorite color is blue because i don’t like red.
Fish
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is green
AmandaN
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is amanda because its beautiful, hot and classic (and i created it).
Jaz
May 15th, 2007
My favorite colour is Citric Acid, cos it goes faster.
Anthony
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is yellow because my girlfriend is Asian
TumTum
May 15th, 2007
My favorite colour is orange, because it has it’s own fruit.
Mariano
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is pink because that’s Superman’s favorite color!
Lee Jorgensen
May 15th, 2007
My favourite colour is Octarine because it doesn’t exist…
Leo Aquino
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is fushya because I’m having a hard time spelling it
Meganp
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is green because I’m a total treehugger and it reminds me of all the wonderful trees that I’ve hugged.
RICK!
May 15th, 2007
A more comprehensive color tool roundup.
http://www.elogodesign.com/color-matching-guide/
Andreas
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is the green used on this blog because it gives the site a nice taste
Sergios Singeridis
May 15th, 2007
My favorite color is blue because it makes peoples trust you and it is easy to work with
KateMoon
May 15th, 2007
My favourite color is orange, because of the inexplicable look of bewilderment on people’s faces when I say that.
Paul Enderson
May 16th, 2007
My favourite colour is taupe, because nobody else knows *quite* what it is…
matthew
May 16th, 2007
My favourite colour is not possible because I have yet to decide on which one.
Nicole Pang
May 16th, 2007
My favourite colour is GREEN because you can apply bright green on game designs for that ATARI feel, bluish-green on corporate designs for appropriateness, dark green for your award-winning ads to have that realistic feel and and and…….
Plus, I’m wearing green today and it felt good
Vinu Jackson
May 16th, 2007
My favourite colour is :
C = Crimson
O = Orange
L = Lemon Yellow
O = Olive
U = (dunno a color name starting with “U”)
R = Red
Scott
May 16th, 2007
My favorite color is green because I have too many blue clothes.
RAN
May 16th, 2007
My favorite colour is…..ehhh…..BLACK….ups…..oh you say its no colour….ok then…just give me one of these colour schema studios….i will pick another one
Luke Borloz
May 16th, 2007
http://colr.org is another good one. It’s got something like the Photo Schemer, but it’s web based and allows users to submit their own palletes like colourlovers does.
Tracy Harris
May 17th, 2007
My favorite color is orange, because noone else seems to like it.
Andy Martin
May 17th, 2007
My favorite color is vermillion because it sounds like a small creature and something irresistably delicious at the same time.
Cyan
May 18th, 2007
And I do believe this competition is now officially closed! Time to choose winners…….
Anders
May 18th, 2007
My favourite color is red because that is the color of my girlfriend Lisa’s hair.
Daniel Reeders
May 19th, 2007
Okay great competition BUT it means nobody will ever read this comment! I’ve played extensively with Color Schemer Studio but never managed to use a single colour or colour scheme it has generated in actual finished work. It’s weird, but I don’t think it fits into the way I pick colours for my artwork. So many of the analogues, complementaries, and so forth, produce colour relationships that are just too stark and obvious. I tend to like picking colours out of a photograph, but Color Schemer Studio seems to encourage me to choose -lots- of colours — and if you look at their gallery of user-contributed colour ’schemes’, there are people contributing ’schemes’ of ten or more colours — which isn’t very practical assistance for producing a design that works!
Daniel Reeders
May 19th, 2007
Oops, I should mention that I really like Mark Boulton’s proportional colour scheme system — where the boxes in the schema are different in size in proportion to the amount the colour will be used in the design.
Ahmad Abozaid
May 21st, 2007
My favorite color is cross-hatched because that is no color at all