Sharing the Love

The standard color mixer is used to create palettes, patterns and colors on ColourLovers. It operates in exactly the same way in each case. The following information is mostly about creating a palette but the same principles apply in each case.

To create palette with the standard mixer, go to "Palettes" in the main site menu and choose "create new".

To create a single color with the standard mixer, go to "Colors" in the main site menu and choose "create new".

To create a pattern with the standard mixer, go to "Patterns" in the main site menu and choose "create new". The standard color mixer will appear when you click on any of the color swatches on the "create a pattern" page.

When creating a Palette:

There are a number of ways to create your own palette.

For example, you can generate color swatches from an existing image,
choose from a randomly generated group of colors at the bottom of the page, or mix your own colors using the ColourLovers color mixer application.

At the top of the page you will see five boxes. These are the "swatch" boxes in which your future palette will be mixed.

Click in one of the grey "swatch" boxes to select it.


Change the darkness, lightness or saturation of a color

In the left side of the HSV color Mixer there is a square color area, displaying the color from dark to light. Move the pointer button to specify how dark, light or "saturated" you wish the color to be. Saturation means the strength or intensity of a color.
Moving the pointer up adds white, moving it down adds black. Moving it to the right increases the saturation, and left de-saturates the color. For example, you can adjust a color from dull grayish red, to pale pink, to dark, to intense bright red. Notice how the pointers in the "S" and "V" strips move up and down as you adjust this pointer.


Change the Hue of a color with the HSV mixer

The first color strip is labeled "H". It is a rainbow colored vertical strip with a slider button. Use this to set the "hue" of the color by moving the slider up and down. This will change the hue of the color - for example, from red to yellow.

Changing the saturation of the color balance between brighter / more saturated

The second color strip is is labeled "S". It allows you to adjust the "saturation" of the color - how intense it is. Notice that the pointer in the main color box moves to the left (brighter) as you move the "S" slider up, and to the right (more saturated) as you adjust this slider down.

Adjust the amount of black in the color
The third color strip allows you to adjust the darkness of the color - how pure, grayish or black it is. This is labeled "V". Notice that the pointer in the main color box moves up (purer/brighter) as you move this "V" slider up, to down (darker) as you adjust this slider down.

Working directly with the Hexidecimal, RGB or CMYK values

Below the HSV color mixer there is a field containing the hexidecimal name of the color currently "mixed" by the mixer. Read more about colors here. This will update as you move the sliders around. You can edit this field directly - you can type a hexidecimal color name into this field.

This mixer also allows you to work directly with the RGB, CMYK and HSV values.

Change the order of colors in a palette or a pattern
You can drag and drop the color swatches to change their order in a palette or a pattern.

When creating Palettes: Using existing colors from the Similar colors group

Below the color Mixer is a randomly generated group of "Similar colors" which update according to the color currently mixed in the mixer. These are colors which are already created and named by other ColourLovers. Click on one of these to add that color to the currently selected swatch.

When Creating Palettes: Picking colors from an existing, online image

To pick colors from an image, paste a complete URL pointing to that image in the "Picture Palette Inspiration" field at the top of the page. This must be a complete URL including the "http://" bit. Click on the "Find Inspiration" button and the color swatches will be generated.

If the URL contains characters indicating spaces in the file name like so: "%20", the link finder wont be able to generate colors from your image.

Naming the palette / Pattern

Remember to type a name for your palette / pattern. This does not have to be a unique name - its OK if there are already other palettes or patterns with the same name in ColourLovers.

Publishing the palette or pattern
To publish the finished palette (dont worry, you can always edit it later) - scroll down and click on the "Add Palette" or "Add Pattern" button at the bottom of the page.

Naming your colors.

When mixing colors for a palette or pattern, you may have created some colors that have not been submitted to this site before. In this case, you will be prompted to name these colors just after you try to submit the palette or pattern.

The color names do not have to be unique to the site. If other lovers have named other colors with the same name, it does not matter.

If you choose colors that have already been submitted to ColourLovers, that color's existing name will automatically appear on that palette's page.

Is it mentioned somewhere that you can click and drag the color swatches to switch places? (This works both for palettes and patterns.)

Inserted! :)

I'm a confused Noob. I guess this app does not do what I'd hoped it would do.

I wanted to use it to create "badges" on my blog with groups of marker colors I used for a given project. Specifically I wanted to try and make my own color inventory named with Copic marker names. So far I tested it and the first two colors I tried already had names. Can I not have my own name for that color?

Please contact me if you have questions. I think if I can get this to work I can send community members your way.

Holly

hollygtn wrote:

Can I not have my own name for that color?

Colors are named by the first person who 'creates' them or uses them. In other words, no, you cannot give a registered color your own name. However, you can sometimes find an unnamed close color by changing darkness, saturation or lightness very slightly.

That is too bad. Thanks for clearing it up onebreath.

Holly

Whenever I try to create a palette (even using existing colors), I am prompted to name the colors, however, there is no given place to name them (i.e., no pop-up box, or fields in which to name the colors). This is happening in both IE and FF.

If I try to create my own color, and then click "Add" the flash box for the color I created flickers and then nothing happens. If I click "Add" again, it goes to a "404 Page Not Loved" page... this happens (again) in both IE and FF, and I do have JavaScript enabled in both.

?????

It's like being a kid in a candy shop and not being able to touch or buy - aarrgh!

@Contrarian Librarian:

I suggest you post this to the Bugs forum as we're not qualified to help you with such technical issues here.

SOME ONE HERE IS CALLED THE CL SYSTEM IF YOU KNOW THEM STOP SENDING ME A NOTIFICATION!!! NOW

How do you add the toggle when creating a palette?

How can you add another color? i.e. More than 5 colors for a palette?

As far as I'm aware, you can't. I've personally only seen room for 5.

darkangel8xt wrote:

How can you add another color? i.e. More than 5 colors for a palette?