Can't Find Suitable Color Combinations for Your Site?

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Built-in color theory tutorial - learn while having fun!
  • (5 more, see all...)

In the arts of photography, painting and web design, color theory is a set of basic rules for mixing color to achieve a desired result. Artists have no problem with it, but what about the rest of us?

Sometimes, even when you know the theory, practice can be against you. A little help is always welcome, and when we talk about the web design, a computer will be involved for sure. The computer by itself can't do much for us, and that's why we use specialized programs. Today's target is called ColorImpact.

ColorImpact is a professional utility for creating harmonious color schemes, based on the color wheel developed in the past (for example, Goethe and Newton had two different color wheels, and there are a lot more than these).

The 15 days trial version of the program has no features disabled, so you can take advantage of them all while testing it. ColorImpact has a well organized and intuitive user interface. The color schemes can be exported as Photoshop palettes, CSS files or simply copied to the clipboard and pasted into your favorite design application.

The program's interface has a menu bar, a toolbar and three panels: Base Color, Work Area and Color Palette. Let's see what they are all about...

Since the program's menus and toolbar functions are things that everybody can explore and I will touch later a bit, I'll start with the Base Color panel now. This first panel is a configurable tool which enables you to select and fine tune the base color. The tools available here enable you to pick colors from anywhere on your screen, generate a random base color or navigate back or forward between previously selected ones.

The work area is the main playground of ColorImpact. Here you can create color schemes, color variations and test the results on test patterns.

The Main Menu area is like a control center for this program and lets you explore the color tools, change the program's interface according to your experience level or learn lots of interesting things about basic color theory.

The color tools let you adjust colors in the palette in order to better suit your needs. For example, the Color Variations panel lets you modify and add variations to the colors in the color palette while the Color Blender gives you the power to create intermediary colors between any two end colors. A very useful tool is the Test Pattern panel, which allows you to experiment and see how your color schemes look when used on real designs, like web pages or clothing.

Do I have to tell you how customizable this program is and how many options has available? I think you should try and see for yourself, there's no doubt about it.

Before ending this review, I have to point out a thing that I'd really liked to see implemented in ColorImpact. There are people who can't distinguish certain colors and see the world a bit different than the others. In order to create designs that would look nice to them, you have to see through their eyes. Since this is not possible, ColorImpact has an option that enables viewing your work exactly how it appears to people who can't see red, green or blue. This option is called Color Blindness Simulation and can be found in the View menu.

The Color Palette is where your current palette is stored. You can store several palettes here, each holding an unlimited number of colors.

The Work Area can be saved as bitmap file or in SWF format for later viewing and use.

This program is a pleasure to use and can prove extremely useful. It is a joy for the eye trying it and although its price is high, ColorImpact is an option worthy to consider for those in need.

The Good

I was glad to find that ColorImpact is a fast, easy to use and powerful program. Besides creating and testing color palettes, it can also teach you the basics of color theory.

The Bad

The only bad thing about this program is its price, which is too high, in my opinion, but since it's intended to be used by professionals more than by regular users, this may not be a drawback for people looking for the best tool, no matter its price.

The Truth

If you're an average computer user or you don't work in the computer graphics or design fields, then this will be a program fun to check out and probably nothing more. If you work daily with colors, than this could be a great helper and time saver. My advice for everybody is to spare a little time for ColorImpact and decide what they will do next after using it for a while.

See the color wheel spinning:

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user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 5
pricing / value 3


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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