0to255

[atomon]

I'm surprised that people don't seem to like this as much as I do. Yes, a designer is obviously going to use a more powerful tool, but that doesn't really say anything about how useful this is. I'm constantly writing small web apps and I have absolutely no design sense whatsoever. Having a really simple, elegant tool that lets me randomly choose a color and view a few shades lighter or darker is a huge help. It's got a nice, simple UI and does one thing very well. I'll definitely be using it.

And for those of you linking to other tools, they all either a) have a poor UI or b) do too much. That's not to say that they don't have their place, but they just don't do the same thing as this.

[kulkarnic]

I agree it's a useful tool. However, I'm usually choosing a bunch of colors, and it helps if you're seeing the colors in context.

What I'd really love is a color-dropper plugin that lets me choose a random color on a webpage, and change every pixel of that color to a different one specified by me.

SASS does something close with its CSS variables, but it lacks the real-time interaction.

Sorry this is so off-topic, this seemed so close...

[schapman623]

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for the good feedback :)

[ZeroGravitas]

Okay, I'm intrigued. What can this possibly be doing that requires so many individual Flash items?

[pistoriusp]

It's to enable click-to-copy (to the clipboard.)

[lenni]

I like the fact that many people on HN seem to be running ClickToFlash.

[SlyShy]

Nice tool, although the way the colors are displayed can distort perception. Always remember to test and pick colors in context. If you are using a white background, don't pick colors in a black app, and vice versa.

[nopassrecover]

How is this a problem here? As I see it the app uses both white and black backgrounds to help avoid this problem.

[remi]

Eric Meyer's Color Blender has been doing this for years.

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/

[ableal]

Thank you. Plus:

If you'd like to have the Color Blender for offline use, just view source and save

(actually, just saving the html page does it)

[scorxn]

Too much choice I think. "0to255 is a simple tool that helps web _designers_ find variations of any color." Designers already have offline tools to explore full color spectra.

Tools that turn color theory into recommendation algorithms are much more useful. Illustrator introduced a "Color Guide" palette for this and it's great. Would be even better as a free online tool. Doesn't necessarily need to be user-contributed like Kuler.

[subbu]

I am sure programmers will find this tool very useful. I had to show a pie chart of different categories of data with varying weights. So I had to use the same color for representing weight of the same category. The best resource I could fine for identifying variations of same color was http://www.december.com/html/spec/colorhslhex10.html. Though it gives variations for same color, the variations aren't sequential between the rows. So at any point I couldn't get more than 10 cascading variations of the same color. This tool solves that problem pretty well.

[dhuck]

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

[cschneid]

I don't think the app is meant to be a whole color scheme design tool, so much as a helper that solves the specific question: "What is one shade lighter of this color?". "How about two shades".

[pg]

I wish "pick another color" put a second color to the right of the first instead of replacing it.

[schapman623]

Hmm, that's a good idea. I'll play around with that.

[Pistos2]

This is well done, though I was also befuddled at first by the spinners on hover.

See also:

http://www.colorschemegenerator.com/index-black.htm

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/ - Generate a palette from an image

[watty]

I just use ColorCop and drag the slider up and down to change luminosity.

That "ribbon" design is becoming popular... http://0to255.com/ http://blog.metalabdesign.com/ http://www.movenetworks.com/

[callmeed]

This is great. With CSS gradients, borders and text shadows, you can at least start some nice interfaces without any background images.

[tripngroove]

Here's a great one that converts between color modes, lets you step up or down mathematical increments by clicking, and gives you a full-window preview while you work. I use it all the time.

http://www.drpeterjones.com/colorcalc/

[Keyframe]

I just use http://kuler.adobe.com It's great!

[nick-dap]

I find http://www.colourlovers.com much better all around.

I've struggled with Kuler for a while. Its just too slow and cumbersome (try copy pasting to Photoshop and back). The reason is of course that its all in Flash. There is a built-in Kuler toolbox in Photoshop, but that's as slow and cumbersome as the site.

[ph0rque]

hmmmm.... unfortunately, #baddad is a nice color, while #fabdad isn't IMO.

[bmelton]

I don't usually try to make pointless posts, but this is a BEAUTIFUL application, and there is almost no aspect of it that I do not love, even if I will likely never use it.

[gren]

That's cool but useless when using Sass http://sass-lang.com/

[JoeAltmaier]

Any app that needs the back button to fish around, could be improved by NOT needing the back button.

[mufumbo]

my only suggestion is to be able to have my "saved colors" in the browser cookie. when i click it can add it to a fifo list :)

[jacktang]

it is not well supported in Chrome(debian)

[schapman623]

Sorry about that. I'll be cleaning up browser compatibility in the next few days.