Coolors - Review
Source: Coolors
In the previous post, we focused on the usage of Adobe Colour. If you don't want to use a colour wheel, you could give Coolors a try.
Content
1. What is Coolors?
Like Adobe Colour, Coolors is an application that can colour palettes for your design.
2. How to use Coolors?
Click on Generate Tab, and it will bring you to the page with a random colour palette.
Source: Coolors
Hit the spacebar to generate another colour palette. It's that simple! The application will generate random colour combinations for you.
Source: Coolors
Another colour palette would be generated.
Source: Coolors
Hover over 1 of the colours, you would see the list of tools. You can remove a column, view the shades, save a colour as a favourite, change the placement of the colour, copy the hex and lock the colour. Most importantly, you can set the colour setting.
Source: Coolors
When you click on view shades, you can select other shades. It would not affect the remaining colours.
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What happened when I locked one of the colours? For example, if you like the blue shade, you can keep it by clicking on the lock button and hit the spacebar to generate a new colour palette. That's one way to create a unique colour palette.
Source: Coolors
You can also adjust the Hue, Saturation, Brightness and Temperature of the colour palette. The adjustment will spread across the colours.
Source: Coolors
You can view the colour palette as a gradient too. This is useful for designers who need to create colour gradients for brands.
Once you have generated the colour palette of your choice, save the hex code for your future projects.
3. Review
Here's my honest review:
First Impression ★★★☆☆
The website is a little cluttered for my liking. I would prefer that it go straights to the colour palette page straight away. I can generate the colour palette without having to go through more steps.
Aesthetic Design ★★★☆☆
As mentioned in my earlier point, the front page is slightly cluttered. I don't appreciate the aesthetic of the front page. Moreover, there are advertisements too. The tool is free. Hence, I suspect it relies on them to generate revenue. Ideally, "generating the colour palette" should be the main focus of the website.
Ease of Use ★★★★★
It's easy to generate a colour palette. You simply just have to hit the spacebar, then a random colour palette would appear. Alternatively, you could even choose one of the popular colour palettes to use. Most of the functions are pretty easy to use. It's straight to the point.
User Experience ★★★★☆
The application provides good value. Not only it is easy to use, but it's also free. It serves its purpose of generating colour palettes. Initially, I wanted to give it 3 stars. However, I am giving it an additional star to the rating due to this particular function - colour blindness. You can use this function to find out how colour is perceived by those who have colour blindness. You can then improve the accessibility and readability of your design.
Source: Coolors
4. Price Plan
The application is free!
5. Pros and Cons of Coolors
Pros
One of the pros of the application is the Colour Blindness function. It's easier for designers to visualise and improvise on their designs. This function helps to promote a more inclusive society too.
The Colour Picker is a pretty cool function too. You can use the colour picker function to have an in-depth understanding of the colour. You can have the entire variation of the colour, and it can even suggest the Pantone code.
Source: Coolors
Source: Coolors
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Lastly, there's a collage maker. You can drag and drop an image to generate a collage of it with a suggested colour palette. I thought this is quite cool.
Source: Coolors
Cons
When you do not know what colours you want to use, you might keep hitting the spacebar just to find the one. The choices are endless. You may not know when to stop. Hence, you may be spending a lot of time on this website just to find a few suitable palettes.
6. Who should use Coolors?
Given that the focus of the webpage is on the colour palette, it would naturally have a niche audience. This webpage is an excellent tool for all designers.
7. Why should you use Coolors?
If you don't know what you want for your design, Coolors is a good page for you to look for inspiration. Who knows what colour combination you would find on the webpage.
Other than Adobe Colour, Coolors is an alternative application that can create colour palettes. It's free too. Moreover, the colour blindness function provides positive value for designers who want to create designs to promote a more inclusive society.
I hope this article helps!
x, Esther
I welcome suggestions and collaboration. Feel free to drop me a note at hello.estherp@gmail.com.
