[HN Gopher] Show HN: Paletter - Create Professional Color Palett...
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       Show HN: Paletter - Create Professional Color Palettes from a
       Single Color
        
       Author : maxsavin
       Score  : 72 points
       Date   : 2021-04-27 14:13 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.paletter.app)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.paletter.app)
        
       | michaelbuckbee wrote:
       | Note: this is a downloadable app for MacOS and I too was fooled
       | by the autoplay video.
        
       | cosmodisk wrote:
       | This kind of thing has been on my todo list for years. I should
       | do it some day.
        
       | jensenbox wrote:
       | Is there a specific reason this needs to be a program I download
       | rather than just a website?
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | At least for Mac, people have completely different UI/UX
         | expectations for a website and an app. Designers tend to be
         | pretty picky about their tools.
        
       | dljsjr wrote:
       | I can't find any copy on the MAS listings or on the website that
       | describes the differences between Paletter and Paletter Lite.
       | Even just a feature matrix would be good.
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | Very good point, can't believe I missed that.
         | 
         | I have it inside Paletter Lite app.. have a screenshot for you
         | here: https://imgur.com/a/CJvf0fh
        
       | smoldesu wrote:
       | This looks nice, but I don't think I'd want to pay $10 for a
       | color picker, especially one that would only work on my Mac...
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | What kind of features would you want for ten dollars?
        
           | smoldesu wrote:
           | I think 10 dollars is a lot to ask for a color picker when
           | there are lots of established and free online options (Adobe
           | Kolor, Coolers, etc.). If you could match the featureset of
           | those programs with some sort of cloud-saving
           | functionality/library for my palette, I'd probably go for it.
           | Especially if it has a Linux-native frontend like GTK, I'd
           | end up using it pretty frequently.
           | 
           | Your call though, I'm just a guy who uses software.
        
             | maxsavin wrote:
             | Thanks. Paletter's feature set goes quite beyond what the
             | mainstream tools offer, but maybe that needs to be more
             | clear.
             | 
             | Cloud palettes are probably coming. As for Linux, would be
             | a tough call since most designers are on Mac and Windows.
        
       | pcmaffey wrote:
       | Why are online color palettes always 5 colors? It seems...
       | arbitrary.
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | Completely arbitrary
        
       | maxsavin wrote:
       | Hey folks! Loving the comments on trying to use the screenshot. I
       | thought it would be really nice to have a full size demo of the
       | product rather than a scaled down graphic - but it turns out
       | there could be a downside!
       | 
       | Happy to answer any and all of your questions!
        
       | programmarchy wrote:
       | The app looks great! I appreciate the native Mac design, and the
       | tab picker at the top is well done.
       | 
       | The intro video was helpful to see the app in action, but it was
       | hard for me to understand the actual process of how I would
       | "create a palette from a single color". It might be helpful to
       | have more of a tutorial video with voice over that walks through
       | starting with a color, and getting to a full palette.
       | 
       | The tagline of creating a palette from a single color is very
       | compelling to me (as a developer with a modicum of design
       | talent), but I was confused/overwhelmed by all the options and it
       | was hard for me to piece together what was happening in the
       | preview video.
        
       | daniel-thompson wrote:
       | The product looks interesting. The website is pretty aggressive
       | about trying to open the App Store.
       | 
       | What is the difference between the Lite version and the paid
       | version?
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | Thanks... good things happen when the end user is on the App
         | Page :P
         | 
         | I am going to outline it on the next website.. for now, it's
         | present in the Upgrade tab on Paletter Lite
         | 
         | Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/CJvf0fh
        
       | tobr wrote:
       | Just going by what I see in the video, I get the impression that
       | the color palettes are generated in RGB space? I think you should
       | at least support Lab if you want to call the app professional.
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | It supports RGB, LRGB, HSL, HCL and LAB (for now :)
        
       | sorcix wrote:
       | I actually tried to use the screenshot. Autoplay is disabled in
       | my browser, I suppose it's easier to see that it's not a webapp
       | when the video is playing.
        
       | luke2m wrote:
       | Linux support?
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | Not likely :| maybe a web product down the line - can suggest
         | to sign up for company updates
        
           | luke2m wrote:
           | Thanks.
        
       | willio58 wrote:
       | Site isn't responding for me. Does anyone have a good
       | accessibility-oriented color generator that makes actually good
       | color combinations?
        
         | smoldesu wrote:
         | Coolors[1] has never failed me. It's got a great UI, great
         | workflow and is totally free.
         | 
         | [1] https://coolors.co
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | What device are you using?
        
       | jimhefferon wrote:
       | Sadly, I lack the ability to generate good palettes. I just have
       | a hole in my brain where that ability should go. So a palette
       | generator is no help, for me.
       | 
       | Is there a good, reasonably active, site with a list of palettes
       | that talented people were good enough to make Freely available? I
       | used to go to kuler.adobe.com (spelling?) but I think it changed
       | and I've since had trouble finding one that is as good.
        
         | krsdcbl wrote:
         | If i spare a tiny bit of advice, it would be this: There's a
         | big misunderstanding about what makes a good palette, and color
         | palette tools are largely the culprit.
         | 
         | Creating a usable palettes has very little to do with the usual
         | "find five colors that look good together" approach and is
         | actually a much more tangible and technical process.
         | 
         | You'll want to start with ONE color. Create a step of shades
         | onto your background color & check it for possible needs of hue
         | and saturation tweaks along the grading.
         | 
         | Find a complementary dull, almost gray color and develop the
         | same kinds of shade.
         | 
         | You're mostly done now. It's often advisable to find a
         | secondary, complementary color to go with it, but that's it
         | pretty much it for the breadth of the palette you'll actually
         | need in most ui design projects.
         | 
         | Going off most of these typical 5c color palette proposals that
         | look good on their own will almost never lead you to a good and
         | foremost usable color scheme, it's nice to look at but the way
         | these are used make it appear like you need half a dozen
         | primary colors. What you'll actually want is one brand color
         | and matching greyscale, and then work off the requirements of
         | elements that need to stand out.
         | 
         | Just like with typography, heavy limitation but subtle
         | alterations of your palette is what leads to a good looking,
         | coherent design.
        
           | uxamanda wrote:
           | Agree with you on all of your points. In case anyone is
           | looking, https://coolors.co/generate is a good site for
           | finding shades of a color (hover a color and go to the shade
           | section).
        
         | dillondoyle wrote:
         | https://www.colourlovers.com/
         | 
         | Though it's gotten ad spammy it seems
        
           | jimhefferon wrote:
           | Thank you. I've bookmarked it. (I am fine with ads; although
           | it can be overdone, of course.)
           | 
           | I'll mention that one thing that is appealing is that the
           | license is clear. I use the palettes for some Freely-licensed
           | projects and so I redistribute the materials. In many places
           | it is hard to tell what is allowed (I have a number of times
           | spent some effort tracking down a creator only to be
           | eventually unable to get more than "It is free" for a license
           | statement.)
        
         | swyx wrote:
         | here's my collection of color guides with some preselected
         | colors: https://github.com/sw-yx/spark-
         | joy/blob/master/README.md#col...
        
           | maxsavin wrote:
           | thanks for adding Paletter :)
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | All you need is to pick a base color for your brand. Paletter
         | will then generate different schemes and palettes for you based
         | on that color. And you can play with it and explore :) I'm the
         | same as you haha
        
           | zachrose wrote:
           | But it seems like there's a lot more that goes into making a
           | palette specifically for user interfaces:
           | https://design.gs.com/news/color
        
             | maxsavin wrote:
             | There's a difference, part of it is a matter of a taste,
             | like picking a color for your band, part of is it logical,
             | like accessibility, color psychology, etc.
             | 
             | I'd say most people struggle with the taste part, and
             | that's what Paletter helps with. The logical side of things
             | can be learned quickly.
        
           | jimhefferon wrote:
           | Thank you. At the site I mentioned, I found that I would pick
           | some palettes that I thought suited my needs, and found that
           | they did not follow any of the standard patterns
           | (complementary, etc.). So I came to the sense that the
           | patterns are fine as far as they go, but that they do not go
           | all the way.
        
       | noughtme wrote:
       | I commend the author on their entrepreneurialism. Not sure why
       | this needs to be a native app. You can code up a web app to
       | generate color palettes in about 20 minutes, which is a fun
       | excercise. Or you can just google color palette generator:
       | 
       | https://tailwind.ink
       | 
       | https://huey.design
       | 
       | https://www.tailwindshades.com
       | 
       | https://tailwind.simeongriggs.dev
       | 
       | https://javisperez.github.io/tailwindcolorshades/
       | 
       | https://tailwind-color-picker.jessarcher.com
       | 
       | Also, maybe consider hosting on Netlify or Vercel or Github
       | Pages, or anything that doesn't require a server to spin up for a
       | static site.
        
         | halfmatthalfcat wrote:
         | Also Adobe Color (https://color.adobe.com)
        
         | maxsavin wrote:
         | Honestly, half of the point was to have a native app. It
         | changes the perception of the product, gives it a proper
         | presence on your app dock, works offline, and has the system
         | related features you would expect :)
         | 
         | It also helps piggyback on the App Store for discovery.
        
         | jjordan wrote:
         | Great list. I use one that follows Material Design guidelines.
         | It's called Material Design Palette Generator
         | (http://mcg.mbitson.com/), and the source is on GitHub
         | (https://github.com/mbitson/mcg).
        
         | kogus wrote:
         | I'll thrown in my personal favorite, Paletton. I am not
         | affiliated with them in any way, just a happy user.
         | 
         | https://paletton.com
        
         | swyx wrote:
         | here is my collection of more palette generators:
         | https://github.com/sw-yx/spark-joy/blob/master/README.md#pal...
         | mostly gotten off HN every time it comes up
        
         | slig wrote:
         | > You can code up a web app to generate color palettes in about
         | 20 minutes, which is a fun excercise.
         | 
         | I'd be really interested in seeing someone do that in 20
         | minutes. If you ever decide to do that, please post here.
        
           | noughtme wrote:
           | Alright, maybe a bit more than 20 mins. It's ugly, it's
           | rudimentary, but it works. Feel free to fork it. The
           | color/palette generation functions can use some work and I am
           | not a designer.
           | 
           | Obviously it was a bit of a facetious comment, and props to
           | the author for building a full iOS app. This is definitely
           | not that.
           | 
           | https://hn-color-palette-generator.netlify.app
           | 
           | https://github.com/noughtme/color-palette/tree/main/src
           | 
           | *I have a bunch of color related function code snippets I use
           | for dataviz, so I did not write the utils file "from scratch"
           | just now. Also chakra-ui is a great component library that
           | helps with quick prototyping.
        
             | ysavir wrote:
             | This is actually very useful and tastefully done!
             | Bookmarked!
        
             | slig wrote:
             | It's not ugly, and it works. Congrats on shipping and
             | thanks for sharing!
        
           | i_haz_rabies wrote:
           | I bet I could code up a site that has a link to a different
           | colour palette generator in 20 minutes.
        
         | krsdcbl wrote:
         | Designer here, actually a big fan of the desktop software
         | approach. I tend to keep all my ressources as local as possible
         | and don't really like working off webapps and being account &
         | online bound in my process. I guess that's a matter of taste,
         | but I'm really happy seeing this project pop up.
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-27 23:01 UTC)