Helpful Tools for Creating WordPress Website Color Schemes

By Lisa Sabin-Wilson from WordPress Web Design For Dummies

You can find tools to help you create just the right color scheme for your WordPress website without spending a lot of time creating different color schemes by using online color wheels and choosing colors yourself.

Exploring different color combinations

Here are several online tools to help you find color inspiration and ideas:

COLOURlovers: The COLOURlovers website lets you browse through millions of different color combinations and palettes that you can use in your designs. Members of the website submit and share their favorite colors and schemes with other members — so it’s a social network based around colors! The figure shows the results of the palettes found by searching for an orange color using the hex code #F8981F in the search feature.
Kuler from Adobe: Adobe’s Kuler is a web-based application where you can share and experiment with different color combinations. Kuler is a community where members share their color schemes and experiments with other members to help inspire one another in the area of color.
ColorSchemer Studio: ColorSchemer Studio (USD $49.99) is an application for mixing and matching colors to develop a color scheme that you like enough to use on your website design project. Download the app from the ColorSchemer website and install it on your computer. From there, use its visual color wheel to create your preferred color schemes. This application is available for Windows and Mac.

Finding RGB and hex codes

Sometimes you already have a color scheme defined before the design project begins; for example, a logo that you want the color scheme to match. In these circumstances, pull out the following tools to determine quickly and easily the RGB or hex codes of the colors presented:

Color Cop: Color Cop is a very handy small application that you download from the Color Cop website and install on your computer (it’s currently available only for Windows). After it’s installed, you can find the Color Cop icon on your Windows Quick Launch toolbar. Follow these steps to quickly pick a color from a website you’re viewing in your browser:
1. Click the Color Cop icon on your Windows Quick Launch toolbar.
  
  A small Color Cop window opens.
2. Click and drag the eyedropper to your desired color location.
  
  The eyedropper symbol is located on the middle of the left side of the window. You can drag the eyedropper to any location on your monitor to select your preferred color.
3. Note the RGB and hex codes of your preferred color.
  
  The RGB code displays in the upper-left section of the Color Cop window, and the hex code appears in the middle, underneath the main color box. The figure shows the color red from the Google logo in the Color Cop window.
4. When you’re done, close the application by clicking the X button in the top-right corner of the window.
Color Palette Generator: Color Palette Generator is an online tool; you can upload an image, such as a logo or a photograph, and the website analyzes the image and returns a color scheme based on the colors found in the image. You can see in the figure that the tool returns the main colors found in that image, and from there, you can hover over each color with your mouse to discover the specific hex code to use in your design project.
I Like Your Colors: I Like Your Colors lets you discover a specific color scheme of another website by simply entering its URL (or web address) and clicking the Get Colors button. Then I Like Your Colors returns a listing of colors found on the website you entered. This is a handy tool when, say, you love the color scheme at Google. You can then enter Google’s URL and find out the exact hex codes for the colors it uses.

If all else fails, most graphic design and image-editing programs have color pickers, or eyedroppers, that you can use to drag over an image to select a particular color. Between your graphics program and these online tools, you’re all set to create your own color schemes.