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Show HN: Paletter – Create Professional Color Palettes from a Single Color

101 points by maxsavin 5y ago

willio58 5y ago
Site isn’t responding for me. Does anyone have a good accessibility-oriented color generator that makes actually good color combinations?
- maxsavin 5y ago
  What device are you using?
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Coolors[1] has never failed me. It's got a great UI, great workflow and is totally free. [1] https://coolors.co https://coolors.co
sorcix 5y ago
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.
maxsavin 5y ago
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!
luke2m 5y ago
Linux support?
- maxsavin 5y ago
  Not likely :| maybe a web product down the line - can suggest to sign up for company updates
  - luke2m 5y ago
    Thanks.
noughtme 5y ago
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://tailwind.ink https://huey.design https://huey.design https://www.tailwindshades.com https://www.tailwindshades.com https://tailwind.simeongriggs.dev https://tailwind.simeongriggs.dev https://javisperez.github.io/tailwindcolorshades/ https://javisperez.github.io/tailwindcolorshades/ https://tailwind-color-picker.jessarcher.com 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.
- maxsavin 5y ago
  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.
  - orangesquirrel 5y ago
    I just purchased this app after reading this comment and was very disappointed to discover that it is not a native app, but an Electron app. Furthermore, maybe I am missing something, but where are the color management settings?
    - maxsavin 5y ago
      Color management is done on the OS level. If you're not happy with the quality of app.. would love to know what's not working for you - and am happy to provide a refund.
- krsdcbl 5y ago
  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.
michaelbuckbee 5y ago
Note: this is a downloadable app for MacOS and I too was fooled by the autoplay video.
jensenbox 5y ago
Is there a specific reason this needs to be a program I download rather than just a website?
- maxsavin 5y ago
  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 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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 https://imgur.com/a/CJvf0fh
jimhefferon 5y ago
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.
- maxsavin 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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 https://design.gs.com/news/color
    - maxsavin 5y ago
      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 5y ago
    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.
- krsdcbl 5y ago
  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.
daniel-thompson 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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 https://imgur.com/a/CJvf0fh
cosmodisk 5y ago
This kind of thing has been on my todo list for years. I should do it some day.
tobr 5y ago
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 5y ago
  It supports RGB, LRGB, HSL, HCL and LAB (for now :)
pcmaffey 5y ago
Why are online color palettes always 5 colors? It seems... arbitrary.
- maxsavin 5y ago
  Completely arbitrary
smoldesu 5y ago
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 5y ago
  What kind of features would you want for ten dollars?
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    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 5y ago
      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.
programmarchy 5y ago
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.
aabbcc1241 5y ago
There is gpick[1] for Linux users [1] http://www.gpick.org/ http://www.gpick.org/

101 points by maxsavin 5y ago

Site isn’t responding for me. Does anyone have a good accessibility-oriented color generator that makes actually good color combinations?

maxsavin 5y ago
What device are you using?
smoldesu 5y ago
Coolors[1] has never failed me. It's got a great UI, great workflow and is totally free. [1] https://coolors.co https://coolors.co

sorcix 5y ago

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.

maxsavin 5y ago

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!

luke2m 5y ago

Linux support?

maxsavin 5y ago
Not likely :| maybe a web product down the line - can suggest to sign up for company updates
- luke2m 5y ago
  Thanks.

noughtme 5y ago

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://tailwind.ink https://huey.design https://huey.design https://www.tailwindshades.com https://www.tailwindshades.com https://tailwind.simeongriggs.dev https://tailwind.simeongriggs.dev https://javisperez.github.io/tailwindcolorshades/ https://javisperez.github.io/tailwindcolorshades/ https://tailwind-color-picker.jessarcher.com 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.

maxsavin 5y ago
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.
- orangesquirrel 5y ago
  I just purchased this app after reading this comment and was very disappointed to discover that it is not a native app, but an Electron app. Furthermore, maybe I am missing something, but where are the color management settings?
  - maxsavin 5y ago
    Color management is done on the OS level. If you're not happy with the quality of app.. would love to know what's not working for you - and am happy to provide a refund.
krsdcbl 5y ago
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.

michaelbuckbee 5y ago

Note: this is a downloadable app for MacOS and I too was fooled by the autoplay video.

jensenbox 5y ago

Is there a specific reason this needs to be a program I download rather than just a website?

maxsavin 5y ago
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 5y ago

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 5y ago
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 https://imgur.com/a/CJvf0fh

jimhefferon 5y ago

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.

maxsavin 5y ago
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 5y ago
  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 https://design.gs.com/news/color
  - maxsavin 5y ago
    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 5y ago
  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.
krsdcbl 5y ago
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.

daniel-thompson 5y ago

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 5y ago
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 https://imgur.com/a/CJvf0fh

cosmodisk 5y ago

This kind of thing has been on my todo list for years. I should do it some day.

tobr 5y ago

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 5y ago
It supports RGB, LRGB, HSL, HCL and LAB (for now :)

pcmaffey 5y ago

Why are online color palettes always 5 colors? It seems... arbitrary.

maxsavin 5y ago
Completely arbitrary

smoldesu 5y ago

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 5y ago
What kind of features would you want for ten dollars?
- smoldesu 5y ago
  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 5y ago
    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.

programmarchy 5y ago

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.

aabbcc1241 5y ago

There is gpick[1] for Linux users [1] http://www.gpick.org/ http://www.gpick.org/