A simple trick to take the agony out of creating color schemes.

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I was working on the color scheme for my new live chat application today, when I realized - a lot of developers are afraid of color. Well - I’m going to share a trick of mine that might help you out.

To get started, we need a website to be our…inspiration. The important thing here is that the site has a color scheme that you think is harmonious. I like Campaign Monitor, so we’ll use it.

As you can see, I’ve made a chart off to the side, with the colors ranked from most to least prevalent.

But I’m not sure I want blue. StepLively is a live chat application for online sales. To me, this means connecting with people, building relationships. Real warm fuzzy stuff. So I want a warm color scheme.

Woah! Where’s that come from?

The secret is the Hue/Saturation control. Any photo editing program should have one.

It lets you change the colors in your image while retaining the relationships between them. The result? A color scheme that just works, in whatever hue you like.

Now that you know the secret, you can have all sorts of fun making color schemes. It’s simple, I know, but it’s a surprisingly good way to find color ideas.

My ideas still need some refinement. I’d like to make it more subtle, and add a 6th or 7th supporting color. But I do know that we’re definitely on the right track.

Here’s a few more for you…