Questions about colors, different color space, RGB or CMYK color model, transparent color, using or changing colors.
27
votes
8answers
993 views
Is there a good resource or tool to help build a palette/color scheme around colors I select?
No matter how nice the composition, flow, and lines of my design are, if I am not copying directly from nature, I have a very difficult time picking a decent color scheme. It either looks too drab, ...
23
votes
8answers
5k views
What is the difference between CMYK and RGB? Are there other color spaces I should know?
I'm a photographer, who dabbles in graphic design from time to time as well. What are the differences between the various color spaces?
3
votes
2answers
384 views
What is a spot/Pantone colour?
When should I use them, and how do I pick one?
(NB: I know the answer, but think this question fills an important gap.)
22
votes
6answers
989 views
Sources for Color Theory or Psychology of Color
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good book/blog/forum that focuses on design principles such as psychology of color, specifically where it relates to picking a color palette for a communication ...
31
votes
8answers
6k views
What kind of black should I use when designing for CMYK print?
my question is what kind of black should I use when printing.
At the moment I use this black (split into CMYK) :
C:0%
M:0%
Y:0%
K:100%
It looks fine in InDesign or Illustrator but if I save a PDF ...
15
votes
3answers
988 views
How do I make screenshots look good when printed in CMYK?
Whn printing screenshots alongside black text, black areas of the screenshot look a washed out muddy dark grey - what causes this and can I improve matters?
2
votes
2answers
125 views
Good Resources for Colour Schemes? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Picking colors that don't clash.
What are some good resources for getting colour schemes/palettes for your designs? I usually mix/make them myself but sometimes I ...
12
votes
2answers
747 views
Clearly distinguishable colours for scientific figures
I am looking for pointers on how to pick a set of colours (or a colour gradient) that are clearly distinguishable, for use in scientific figures. Was there any systematic research on this? If yes, ...
5
votes
2answers
304 views
Prepare a design for CMYK printing
This was asked in another thread. When I searched to see if this question has been asked before it was not. Per Meta we are encouraged to create threads that show quality solutions or to future ...
1
vote
4answers
306 views
Darker shade of a given color
What does it mean and how do I get a darker shade of a given color. For example if I have the color
R = 53, G = 140, B = 205
or
H = 204, S = 74, B = 80,
or
#358CCD
What value do I change in ...
20
votes
10answers
618 views
What web graphics formats to use?
Web sites can contain JPEG, GIF, and PNG format graphics. Which ones should be used, and when?
15
votes
4answers
3k views
What's the difference between CMYK Black and RGB Black
I know this sounds a stupid question, black is black right?
Wrong:
It's black right? so why are the CMYK Values so far away from black?
5
votes
2answers
4k views
How does a monitor display the CMYK color? Is it actually showing the true CMYK color?
Just few moments ago I asked a question regarding RGB to CMYK conversion.
say, RGB (86,92,214) the color in my image. Then monitor uses same values for displaying (lightning LEDs, LCDs or CRTs). ...
12
votes
5answers
1k views
Large color set for coloring of many datasets on a plot
I need large set (20 and more) of contrasted and easily visually distinguishable colors for coloring different datasets on a scientific plot (the set of colors should not include write and black and ...
7
votes
3answers
711 views
Choosing colors that work well on projectors
When specifying colors for use in a software user interface, what's the best way to ensure that those colors will look acceptable on all common display technologies: CRT, LCD, and in particular ...
1
vote
4answers
317 views
Need help with the Color Combination for the Red
I have come up with a Basic Design for my web app. I want to use the Red color as it helps induce apetite. Well while designing i have managed to get the basic layout and design directions going. But ...
1
vote
2answers
2k views
Photoshop - adjustment layer to change colors of multiple layers?
I remember I opened a PSD file which did this.
It had like 4 hidden "adjustment" layers, each for a specific color, and all the elements that used a certain color were being changed depending on ...
36
votes
5answers
2k views
Are “web-safe” colors still important?
Years ago, it was always strongly recommended that web designers should only use web-safe colors.
Have studies been done to see if this is still the case? If so, what's the answer?
Edited to add…
...
17
votes
2answers
561 views
How can I improve my color selection skill?
I'm a web developer, started to become a web designer. However, I think my understanding of colors is not practical yet. There are tools out there that can give you color harmonies, and more stuff, ...
8
votes
4answers
311 views
Do high-content areas of a website need to be white/light-colored?
Many websites that are designed to be easy to read (eg. nytimes.com or ilovetypography.com) use white backgrounds with black fonts to make the content easy to read. Is it necessary to only use light ...
7
votes
1answer
392 views
Contrast ratio between foreground and background
What is an acceptable contrast ratio between a foreground and its background?
5
votes
2answers
1k views
How to select colours that match each other?
Looking at the colours in this logo, it is clear that the colours match each other.
How is an orange and purple found that matches the same colour scheme?
I suppose the colour in the 'R' is yellow?
...
3
votes
3answers
286 views
I want to learn how to select appropriate colors and fonts for a new site
I'm developing a new site, and although I know enough basic programming to make the site, I'm not artistically inclined enough to make the site look nice. So, I was hoping I could get some suggestions ...
8
votes
3answers
551 views
What's a good source of color palettes to provide to a color-blind user?
There's a question on this site already about choosing good color palettes when designing for color-blind users. My question is different — it's about working with colors for an audience with normal ...
8
votes
9answers
4k views
Good color palette, usable for the color blind.
I'm designing a chart right now, that will slowly have more items added to it. I'd like to create an list/order of colors for the items, that will be most usable for the color blind to differentiate ...
5
votes
2answers
791 views
What is the fastest way to copy a colour in Photoshop as HEX?
A lot of designers use Photoshop as a design and mockup tool. And in doing so, one of the last steps can be to get a lot of the colour information out so things like gradients and dynamic text can be ...
4
votes
5answers
347 views
Colors in Website Design
It's not a kind of question but rather it's a kind of thing which effects a lot in web designing.
What are some important rules to follow for making a color combination in web design?
I always fail ...
9
votes
5answers
4k views
What is 5-colour printing?
When my print rep talks about five-colour printing, what does he mean? I know you have cyan, magenta, yellow and black - but what's the fifth?
8
votes
2answers
752 views
How to calculate other colors with the same perceived lightness as a given gray value?
This is related to a question I asked on tex.stackexchange, which has a color aspect. The result of that question is the following image:
I have drawn a series of gray squares on the left, with a ...
6
votes
2answers
3k views
What CMYK values should I use for rich black, and how should I handle tints/shades?
I'm working on a full color piece in Illustrator which has a few large black and grey areas.
I'd like the black to be a rich black. I was thinking c30 m30 y30 k100. What is the best ways to match my ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
How can I map the colors in a greyscale image to a specific color “gradient”?
Caveat: I'm not a graphic designer and may be misusing some terminology. Please bear with me. :-)
I'm attempting to add color to some greyscale icons (i.e. all three channels are identical). I ...
1
vote
1answer
272 views
logo with color gradient how to do this?
I would like to do the below color gradiant:
Does anyone know how to approach this? I have searched but don't know the right way to name this effect.
I'd prefer making this effect in Adobe ...
1
vote
3answers
593 views
How to choose colors for a website layout?
Given that I'm new to graphic design and I'm trying to design the homepage of my website, I can't really understand the reason why I can't make the homepage color "shine".
I'm sorry for the ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
Completely different interpretation of Pantone to RGB values depending where I look.
I'm making a web site and have been told the corporate color is pantone 2745.
In illustrator, here, and here it is a deep indigo color.
Here, here, here and here it is a deep violet sort of color.
...
4
votes
3answers
231 views
Simplest set of inks that could print the RGB gamut?
Artist Tauba Auberbach produced this recently:
It's called RGB Colourspace Atlas, and is a physical, printed book of what it implies is the whole RGB colour space.
Is there an existing ...
3
votes
2answers
104 views
Identifying HTML colour codes placed in one pixel
How many colours at once can one pixel contain?
Is there a tool that can represent this pixel in a form of HTML colour codes? (And if there are many colours in this pixel, can this tool show the ...
2
votes
3answers
7k views
How to change colour of all elements of a group, at once, in Illustrator
I have a group of objects of the same colour, consisting of coumpound paths, regular paths and groups of these. How to change the colour of all objects at once? When I tried to use colour picker or ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
Colors change in Photoshop when copying a selection from one document into a new document
I'm trying to copy a particular layer out of a Photoshop document into its own new document and export it for use on the web. I'm doing this by right-clicking the layer in the layers palette, ...
1
vote
1answer
62 views
Rules for adding colors to a black and white palette in web
I am working on a fashion website for my own portfolio, that allows users to have their own account where they save fashion related items. A sort of Pinterest for fashion items.
Now, I know that the ...
1
vote
1answer
96 views
Black-white and grayscale to alpha conversion for images
Is there an utility for converting all black-white and grayscale images from certain folder to the same images with adjusted alpha channel?
For example, for pixel (r:50, g:50, b:50, a:0) I would like ...
1
vote
3answers
444 views
Laptop screen for digital design
I am searching for a laptop with a screen that is suitable for digital design purposes
What I am particularly concerned about is a statement made by a poster (on here):
(the objective is to) make ...
1
vote
1answer
4k views
Make image partially transparent in gimp
I want my image to have 60% transparency. How can I do this in gimp?
1
vote
0answers
134 views
Contrast Color with Red [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Need help with the Color Combination for the Red
Can some one help me to find a color that contrast the color Red HEX: cd0001
I am looking for something i dark rang of ...
0
votes
1answer
139 views
Determine N Contrasting and Aesthetically pleasing colors
How does one algorithmically calculate a set of N colors that are both contrasting and aesthetically pleasing? For example, we want to plot an unknown number of lines on a graph that still looks ...
