10 Best Color Tools for Designers
If you’re like me, you’ve spent hours choosing the right colors for your web design project. Selecting the right color palette is crucial—it can either make your design look great or make it feel dull.
But the good news is: you don’t have to do it alone. There are plenty of tools that take the guesswork out of creating great color combinations.
Understanding color theory is the basis for creating great web designs. If you’re new to this concept or want to dive deeper into how color choices impact user experience, check out my previous post on color theory in web design.
It covers the basics of color psychology, harmony, and how to effectively use color to improve your designs. Combining that knowledge with the tools mentioned here will take your color palette creation skills to the next level!
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through 10 Best Color Tools for Designers that have helped me design eye-catching color combinations. Once you start using them, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them. Ready to dive in? Let’s go!
- Adobe Color
Adobe Color is a powerful tool, especially if you’re already using Adobe’s suite. You can create custom palettes, explore trending color schemes, and even extract colors from images.
Pro Tip: Use its “Color Harmony” features—such as complementary, analogous, or triadic options—to craft perfectly balanced palettes for your projects. - Coolors
Coolors is one of the easiest tools for creating palettes. Just press the spacebar, and it generates a new combination!
Why I Like It: It lets you tweak colors, lock specific ones, and even test for accessibility. Plus, the Chrome extension is super convenient. - Color Hunt
Feeling stuck with your color choices? Color Hunt offers a treasure trove of curated palettes that you can browse for free. Whenever I need a quick boost of creativity, this is my go-to.
How to Use It: Browse the library, find a palette that resonates with your vision, and adapt it to suit your project. - Paletton
Paletton’s interactive tool helps you create balanced color schemes effortlessly. You can even preview how your palette will look in different layouts—super handy for web designers like us. - Colormind
Colormind is an AI-powered color palette generator that learns from images and designs to suggest harmonious colors.
Why It’s Great: Upload a design or mockup, and Colormind will generate a palette tailored to your input. - Material Design Palette
This tool is perfect if you’re designing for apps or websites that follow Google’s Material Design principles. It generates primary and secondary colors and previews how they’ll look in a UI.
- Canva Color Palette Generator
Canva’s color palette generator is a hidden gem for quick designs. Upload an image, and it instantly creates a matching palette.
Bonus: It’s free and easy for beginners! - Colorspace
Need a gradient or smooth color transitions? Colorspace generates gradients and complementary schemes based on your input. I’ve used it to create trendy gradient backgrounds that look stunning. - BrandColors
Curious about the color schemes used by big brands like Coca-Cola or Spotify? BrandColors is a comprehensive database of official brand palettes.
My Hack: Analyze successful branding schemes here and adapt them to your own projects. - Khroma
Khroma is your AI-powered color assistant. Start by selecting colors you like, and it will generate palettes tailored to your preferences.
Why I’m Obsessed: Once Khroma learns your style, it’s like magic. It even suggests typography pairings to complete your design.
How to Choose the Right Tool
With so many options, how do you choose the best tool? Honestly, it depends on your workflow. If you’re looking for simplicity, start with Canva or Coolors. If you’re looking for customization, Adobe Color and Colormind are your best options.
Final Thoughts
Color design doesn’t have to be intimidating. With these tools in your arsenal, you’ll not only save time but also enhance the visual appeal of your work. I’ve personally relied on a mix of these for a variety of projects, and they’ve never let me down.
Now it’s your turn! Which of these tools have you tried — or are you excited to try? Let me know in the comments. Let’s keep this creative conversation going!