Although the Color Schemer has been designed primarily for web and graphic designers, I have found it very useful in my own artwork. The Color Schemer can help artists create harmonious color schemes easily and quickly. Select Color: R:   G:   B:   Lighten All Darken All   RGB to HEX: The Color Schemer Digital Studios Web Design       255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF       255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF       0.0.0 #000000   51.51.51 #333333   102.102.102 #666666   255.255.255 #FFFFFF       153.153.153 #999999   204.204.204 #CCCCCC   255.255.255 #FFFFFF   255.255.255 #FFFFFF (Copyright © 2000 Aaron Epstein/Digital Studios. All Rights Reserved) You can download the full Color Schemer programme or a trial version by Clicking Here The Color Schemer can help you create color schemes that work, without the guess-work often employed by some artists/web designers. Not everyone has an eye for color, but no longer does that mean you can't make great, colorful artwork or web sites! Displays 16 harmonious colors Easily find analogous, triads & complements Right-click access to most features Accepts HEX & RGB values Easy access to HEX & RGB for each color Select colors to create a scheme Save schemes for later use Keep favorites on top of other applications Choose colors from anywhere on the screen Choose colors from 216-color web safe palette Use sliders to modify RGB values Lighten/Darken all colors Easily copy HEX values to the clipboard Make colors web-safe View history of all selected colors View colors on any background color The Color Tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you understand a little bit more about colour, and should help you to liven up your own work. It is designed as an accompaniment for the Color Schemer software. Before we get started, it is important that some basic terms are understood, as they will be referred to later in the tutorial sections. Color Wheel - A circular chart of colors from which many color relationships can be derived. Hue - A term referring to a certain color in the spectrum. Red, Blue, & Green are all different hues. Saturation - A measure of the presence or absence of grey found in a hue. Essentially, how close a color is to grey. RGB - The primary colors Red, Green, & Blue that are mixed in different ratios to form the colors we see on our monitors. HEX - A representation of RGB colors on the internet in the format RRGGBB. Harmony - A visually appealing set of colors that "agree" with each other. The Colour Wheel Think of a color wheel as a map for locating colors. The route you travel between the colors is what you use to create your color scheme. Some of the most appealing sites follow explicit rules, or paths, in order to find colors that go well together. Below, I have illustrated some of these paths: You may think to yourself "these techniques look great, but I don't have a color wheel to choose colors from." That is where the Color Schemer comes in. The Color Schemer is essentially a dynamic color wheel that adjusts to fit your color perfectly! The next page will show you how to use the Color Schemer to find all of these color relationships. Color Harmonies & the Color Schemer Now that you have been introduced to a few of the color relationships that exist, it's time to see how the Color Schemer makes the task of picking harmonious colors a breeze! Look at the Color Schemer as a dynamic color wheel that adjusts to perfectly fit your selected color. Below, you will see how the Color Schemer represents all of the colors found in the color wheel diagrams. Each color can be represented by a number, and where the numbers match, so do the colors! Now, you can see how easy it is to create any type of color harmony you want, and base it off of a single color! For example, after selecting a color with the Color Schemer it is easy to find its' complement simply by looking at the "number 7 color" across the wheel. This trick can be applied to find all of the different color relationships from the Colour Wheel as well as any other more complex relationships I have not described. All of these relationships are described below using their "numbers." Complementary - 1 & 7 Split-Complementary - 1 & 6 & 8 Triad - 1 & 5 & 9 Analogous - 12 & 1 & 2 The inside, un-numbered boxes in the Color Schemer wheel can be used to find the monochromatic color relationship. The top two un-numbered colors can be used as a lighter or darker substitute for the selected color, while the bottom two un-numbered colors can be used as a substitute for its' complement. Using these monochromatic variations within your color schemes can provide a much needed variation in color, while still remaining within your selected scheme. This article was reproduced with the kind permission of Aaron Epstein and Digital Studios Digital Studios, formed in January, 2000, is a custom studio house designed to tailor to your specific Internet needs. They combine technical and artistic expertise to help you build a strong presence on the web and give you an edge over your competition. You can download the full Color Schemer programme or a trial version by Clicking Here Copyright © 2000 Aaron Epstein/Digital Studios, LLC.  All Rights Reserved