A judicious choice of color for the texts and backgrounds can increase the readability of the on-screen text and enhance the overall visual appearance of any elearning module.
There are already many scientific studies which prove that colors can influence and improve the memory retention of the learners.
In this blog, I would like to share some popular tools to help you find and choose colors for your design.
Adobe Color previously known as Adobe Kuler is an online web app where you can explore and experiment with the various options to bring the colors you desire.
•As a user you have 2 options for generating color schemes with this tool:
1. Use the color wheel and generate color schemes.
2. The user can upload an image and Adobe Color CC can generate the palette for the user
•Adobe CC is also available both on iOS and Android platform
•The biggest advantage is the easy integration with other Adobe apps like Illustrator and Photoshop
•Users can upload the generated output to the Adobe cloud with the Adobe color service
2.Paletton
Paletton is another famous tool among the e-learning designers.
•It has a color wheel to generate any color combinations
•It also features an ‘example’ tab which can help the user to view how a selected color looks in a sample website
•Paletton also offers a section for preset themes for the users to choose, the user can also experiment to create random colors with just a single click
•One can export the color list as HTML, CSS, XML or Text and even to .png format which can be imported by other editing tools like Photoshop
3.Colordot
Colordot by Hail Pixel welcomes the users with a simple color interface to generate color samples.
•Apart from an online tool, It is also available on the iOS platform
•Users can visit the website and can immediately start generating the color by just moving around the computer mouse
•The ios app also helps the users to shoot an image and generate accurate colors from it
4.ColorExplorer
ColorExplorer is another online solution to help you find and match your desired color.
•ColorExplorer is free to use and don’t require any registration
•It stands different from the other tools with the innovative MagicMatch option where a user can convert any number of colors into a matching color palette with the click of a button
•There are 4 ways to generate color schemes with this tool:
1.Color picker
2.Image color import
3.CSS/HTML color import
4.Website color import
It has a detailed color scheme options to choose from and a wide range of tools which helps in some advanced functions
Adobe Swatch Exchange (*.ASE) option in the tool allow you to open the color palettes directly in popular Adobe applications like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or Adobe InDesign
Colour Lovers is an international creative community that helps people to design and discover various user created colors from around the world.
•The community has many designers and color lovers who share some amazing designs
•It’s also supported by a good number of themes made available to the users
•The color palette tool supports two options, one for the basic functions and other for the advanced users
6.Colorzilla
Colorzilla is an extension for Chrome and Firefox browsers.
•ColorZilla users can get a color reading from any point in the browser. The software also allows you to analyze and inspect the source code to find the color palette used and generate the colors from it
7.ColoRotate
ColoRotate is available as a web tool and on the iOS platform.
•ColorRotate can connect to Photoshop CS5 or CS6 and it updates the foreground & background colors
•The tool has the option of generating color from images, adjusting with blends, and generating fresh ideas with randomized palettes.
8.Colour Grab
Enter to their website and type a URL of any online image and the system generates the most used colors from that image.
•Colour Grab is also available on the Android platform and helps the user to capture and generate colors with the built-in camera function
9.Cohesive Colors
This tool allows to select from the preset color palette and allows the users to add an overlay tint to experiment and make generate another color palette of the users choice.
•The tool also allows the users to take inspiration from the Colour Lovers community with just a click
•At the moment of writing this blog, the website says that they are working on an iOS app
With this quick research, I find that there are a lot of options available for the designers to experiment with the taste for the colors they desire. The above-mentioned tools can surely help to generate and choose better color schemes for your elearning project. If you have some other favorite tool don’t forget to mention it in the comments section below.
