November 16, 2006

New Adobe Kuler is cool

So I know I teased about it yesterday, but tease no more -- it's here and out in the open.

Adobe kuler is a Flash-based app and runs in your browser. It's actually based on Flash 9 and ActionScript 3, so you'll need to download the latest Flash Player to use it (you'll be prompted to do so when you enter the site, if necessary). Kuler is a project of Adobe Labs (meaning that technically, it's in beta form), but most importantly, it's fun, free, and fabulous.

Some of you know that I consider myself "challenged" in the area of color. While I've found some sites in the past that can help me find some good colors to use in a project (ColorBlender, ColourLovers, etc) I've never really gotten everything that I need. And I think Adobe has hit the mark with kuler.

First and foremost, Kuler is an online community based around the use of color. There are links that talk about color theory, events, exhibits, etc. But through this community, you can share your own use of color with others, and benefit from other people who use color as well. That's because kuler is also a tool that you can use to explore your own colors. Use kuler to find the perfect set of colors to use for any project. The user interface is pretty cool, and allows you to quickly choose a variety of "rules" such as analogous, monochromatic, complementary, etc. You can view HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB, and HEX values of your colors, and best of all, you can click one button to export your colors as an Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ASE) file, which you can import directly into Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign. Nice, eh?



But that's just the small part. Since kuler is an online community, you can publish your colors so that others can see and use them. And you can rate the color palettes that people choose just like you can rate your own songs in iTunes. That means you can quickly see what the most popular colors are, which ones are rated the highest, or which ones have been recently added. Now to me -- one who doesn't know much about colors -- I think it's pretty cool that I can find some nice colors to use that others have given a good rating to. Of course, you also have a "my kuler" section, which allows you to manage your own private colors as well.

So what are you waiting for? Go give it a try -- I'm already having way too much fun with it :)

You can find Adobe kuler at http://kuler.adobe.com.

Oh, by the way, I think one of the coolest things about kuler is that it isn't an application that you buy -- which if you think about it, is something Adobe hasn't done before. If this is a new direction that Adobe is heading in (and I have my reasons to believe that is so), I think this is just the first of many cool diyctools that we might see from Adobe in the future.

And the first person who publishes a "mordy" palette of colors on kuler gets to choose a topic for the next episode of Rubber Cement!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks pretty cool, but I can't forget all the other color tools I've played with that probably inspired Kuler:

EasyRGB
4096 Color Wheel
Color Schemer (downloadable application that's worth a look)
Color Blender
Daily Color Scheme (Beta)
Color Palette Generator (from an image)

There are more that tend to be more specific to web palettes or other uses too. Daily Color Scheme provides a downloadable Illustrator or other app swatch file, and I could swear I've used a different one that did that as well.

Unknown said...

There's no question that the tools that you've mentioned provided inspiration for kuler.

But Adobe is pretty good at identifying a problem in the design community, and then providing a solution. I think that the resources available up to this point were good as individual tools, but kuler is trying to sew the entire color workflow and color experience into something more than just a cool tool to choose a color.

Kuler attempts to be a great tool for choosing colors, offers integration with Adobe's design apps, and offers a community for users to interract. None of the tools that I've seen on the web today can do all of that.

It remains to be seen if kuler will succeed of course, but it obviously becomes stronger as its community grows. And the open-ended question that sits in the back of my mind is, how will Adobe integrate this into its next-generation apps? And will there be more things like this, that expand beyond the boundaries of color?

Anonymous said...

Adobe's system won't let me login with my user ID... I keep getting an exception error. I didn't see any contact information for getting help from Adobe... any suggestions? I want to be able to save and download my creations!

Unknown said...

kuler is officially a beta product and so there's no support. Try this link to troubleshoot login issues:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=cbdd69e

Anonymous said...

Looks interesting but the newest debug version of the Flash Player throws a whole bunch of errors when running the application and a number of the features don't work.

Anonymous said...

Seems like it'd be neat for folks who need it, but I don't understand:

1. Why there needs to be a login system for it

2. Why it needed to be done in Flash at all

Gary Spedding, Ph.D. said...

I looked at it yesterday and agree in part with comments posted here regarding log-in etc. Also, as a newbie, I could not fathom how to best use the site (based for example on making your own swatches). I did try saving some color "formats" but where on earth it saved them to and how you access them after that I have no idea. Maybe this is something you can cover (though not at the expense of other neat ideas) in Rubber Cement; esp. the saving of swatches?

Anonymous said...

"While I've found some sites in the past that can help me find some good colors to use in a project (ColorBlender, ColourLovers, etc) I've never really gotten everything that I need."

"First and foremost, Kuler is an online community based around the use of color."
Exactly what COLOURlovers is.

"There are links that talk about color theory, events, exhibits, etc. But through this community, you can share your own use of color with others, and benefit from other people who use color as well. That's because kuler is also a tool that you can use to explore your own colors. Use kuler to find the perfect set of colors to use for any project."
Yup... still the same.


"But that's just the small part. Since kuler is an online community, you can publish your colors so that others can see and use them. And you can rate the color palettes that people choose just like you can rate your own songs in iTunes. That means you can quickly see what the most popular colors are, which ones are rated the highest, or which ones have been recently added. Now to me -- one who doesn't know much about colors -- I think it's pretty cool that I can find some nice colors to use that others have given a good rating to. Of course, you also have a "my kuler" section, which allows you to manage your own private colors as well."

And still... exactly what COLOURlovers lets you do...

Anonymous said...

This is great!!! Thank you so very much for the link!

Anonymous said...

Well, Mordy, I discovered the same problem you mentioned on the Kuler Forum, i.e.: that pure white was difficult or impossible to create. I was able to if created "#000000" as the Base Color swatch.

Plus, even with the "Custom" color scheme selected, I found that occasionally changing settings for one swatch would change settings for another I had already defined, as though the controls were forcing some sort of unspecified symbiosis upon my choices. Didn't like that at all.

I was going to make these and some other comments, but even though I have the very latest version of the Flash plugin (which I had to install before Kuler would work), entering text simply didn't work in that god-awful FuseTalk/ColdFusion-based forum. I couldn't start a new topic, type a reply, nothing.

Kuler is a cool idea, but it's a little clunky. And I'm too lazy right now to describe the ways in which the UI could be greatly improved.

Anonymous said...

Well, it is a "lab", which means it's kind of like a public beta.

So it is expected to have bugs and glitches and rough edges, and the point of putting it up on the Adobe Labs is precisely so that they can be caught and fixed before it goes prime time.

Unknown said...

You took the words right out of my mouth Teri. Kuler is beta, and so as such, it needs some work. I have lots of ideas for what kuler could and should be, eventually, but for now, it's cool to mess with, useful on some levels, and by providing useful feedback to Adobe, it will get better. A lot better :)

As for the comparison to Colour Lovers, as I had mentioned, those are wonderful sites. But I think that Kuler offers not only the community, but also the great tools and technology for experimenting with palettes and colors. Colour Lovers lets me add colors or palettes that I've created, but it doesn't give me a blank canvas where I can do my fingerpainting :)

In any case, my main point wasn't focused on the tool, but how I see this as a new direction for Adobe. This is a different kind of toolset that we're used to seeing from the company, and that's very exciting to me.

BlueKDesign said...

Is there any documentation on how to read / parse an ASE file from Kuler? I would like to share color palettes from graphic designers with non-graphics users. The ASE file would be great, if I can parse it.

Anonymous said...

Play free game kanser youtube video directory oyun adult porno sex shop image hosting
japan auto store ara utube ytube video share online games adult

Kanser -
Akciğer Kanseri -
Rahim Kanseri -
Lenf Kanseri -
Mide Kanseri -
Yumurtalık Kanseri -

Play game -
Play mario -
sim taxi -
Play game -
Adult games -
Play game -
Play game -
Youtube video

Play action games -
Play arcade games -
Play casino games -
Play misc games -
Play puzzle games -
Play game -
Play shooting games -
Play sport games -

About everything -
you tube video -
Hediye -
Play free game kanser youtube video directory oyun adult porno sex shop image hosting
japan auto store ara mario games erotik fantazi fantezi iç giyim utube ytube tube
video share online games adult
Porn tube

Japan autos -
Alışveriş -
Sex shop -
Image hosting -
Image hosting -
Porn Video -
Porn Video -
Porno Video -
Play free game kanser youtube video directory oyun adult porno sex shop image hosting
japan auto store ara mario games erotik fantazi fantezi iç giyim utube ytube
video share online games adult tube
Porn tube
Porn Video -
Youtube Video -
Sex Shop -
Sex Shop, Kozmetik -
erotik iç giyim -
Sex Shop -
Video Hosting -
Porn Video -
Hediye -
porno -
Directory -
Directory

Play free game kanser youtube video directory oyun adult porno sex shop image hosting
japan auto store ara mario games erotik fantazi fantezi iç giyim utube ytube
video share online games adult tube