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Color
Theory 101
When you want to do more than just guess at colors that "look good,"
learn a bit of color theory. This short tutorial by Jane Rock Kennedy
explains color, how to talk about it, and how to use it. She offers four
approaches to choosing a color scheme: Monochromatic, Complementary, Triadic
and Analogous. Use any of them to give yourself a better start than simply
picking colors at random.
Colorspeak
What does a particular color "say" to you? We all have immediate
emotional reactions to color, making color one of the most important choices
a designer makes. Yet our reactions are highly individual. See just how
individual at this site where people choose colors from the web-safe palette,
then talk about them in words (often blunt, sometimes poetic).
Browser-safe
colors
One of the fundamental "Truths" of web design is to always use
the web-safe or browser-safe palette. These 216 colors will
reproduce consistently, without dithering, in 8-bit color on all major
browsers & platforms. This article is a brief explanation from the
person widely credited with figuring it out, Lynda Weinman.
Death
of the Websafe Palette?
Hardly anyone has an 8-bit monitor anymore (statistics indicate 5% or
fewer), so we're home free, right? We can use any color and it will look
fine on 16-bit and 24-bit monitors. Oops...not so. Read this article and
despair. Exhaustive tests revealed that only 22 colors are consistent
on all browsers/platforms! A variety of strategies for coping with this
harsh reality are discussed, ranging from #2: Don't sweat it to
#9: Go back to print design.
Color
Logic for Web Site Design
Electronic books in PDF form, the Color
Voodoo series provides cookbook-style
guidance to choosing colors in 50 Symbolic Color Schemes. Color
Logic and Color Symbolism provide more in-depth explanations,
and Color Logic for Web Site Design focuses on... well, you know.
They are concise, well-illustrated and helpful, but on the pricey side
for what you get: a downloadable PDF file that you view on your computer.
$20-$30 per title, with savings on special packages.
Scheming
in Color
Get right to the nuts & bolts of using color on a typical business
web page. A simple template shown in different colors illustrates color
choices. You'll recognize the Amazon.com
and C|Net
colors immediately, demonstrating the effectiveness of deliberate, consistent
use of color.
Create
your own color schemes  Palette
Man
Choose four colors plus a text color and see it in a Josef Albers-like
square pattern. When you've found the perfect combination, click a button
to email yourself the hex/RGB values.
ColorMaker
Interactively combine background, text and link colors to find a color
scheme that works. Vary the font size to see how size affects readability.
Then simply cut & paste the HTML body tag that defines the colors.
Color
Sampler
Similar to Palette Man, but lets you choose and view up to 8 colors at
a time.
Color
for print
 Designer's
Guide to Color
James Stockton, 1984, Chronicle Books.
This first of a set of five
books shows various printed (CMYK) color combinations. The combinations
increase in complexity from book to book. Volume 3, for example, includes
3, 4, 5, and 6 color combinations in simple and complex patterns. A great
help in choosing printed colors for any type of publication.
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