4 ms·

Why Programmers suck at Picking Colors

25 points by dood 19y ago

gibsonf1 19y ago
Yes, but why didn't the author, given his new color choosing ability, not upgrade his grayscale blog?
- ecuzzillo 19y ago
  What do you mean, why didn't he not upgrade it? He did not upgrade his grayscale blog.
  - gibsonf1 19y ago
    Ah yes, thanks for that (too tired to properly negate)
divia 19y ago
Perhaps because they are hackers not painters? :-)
jacobolus 19y ago
Yes. Everyone making interfaces or informational diagrams should understand that value contrast is the most important to human ability to distinguish colors, and should use a color model like Munsell or Lab to pick colors. PS: this text box doesn't let me put (more than 1) literal *s in it; there seems to be no way to escape them so they don't end up emphasizing my text. Lesson: just use markdown.
jkush 19y ago
I know I suck at picking colors. Being color blind doesn't help either! I put together a small service that tells you what colors a url uses. So, if I see a website that has a nice color palette, I use my service to get the hex codes. It's way faster and easier than using the eye dropper! Here's the link: Try putting in http://news.ycombinator.com http://news.ycombinator.com http://www.todotoh.com/rgb/rgbanalysis.aspx http://www.todotoh.com/rgb/rgbanalysis.aspx
edw519 19y ago
Just what we need. Another "expert" comes to a hackers' forum and declares that programmers suck at something else. Yawn.
- dood 19y ago
  Are you referring to me? I didn't write this, and in fact I pretty much suck at colour, largely for the reasons suggested in the post, so I found it very interesting. Also, I don't think the author was declaring that all programmers suck at color, just that many do, and he then provides some good ways to understand more for those that don't (colour hacks, if you like). Not terribly controversial.
  - ptn 19y ago
    I think that what he meant is that hackers sucking at colours is a little bit... irrelevant.
    - edw519 19y ago
      Right. In fact, hackers sucking at anything other that hacking is a little bit... irrelevant. Am I the only one who's getting a little tired of hearing about all the unimportant things that I suck at?
Xichekolas 19y ago
Glad to know I'm not the only one who is chromatically retarded.
ptn 19y ago
I'm wearing black, red, blue, yellow and gray at the moment...
- edw519 19y ago
  Fade to white.
bootload 19y ago
I have a simpler reason why, colour literacy. Most people at the age of 4-6 have similiar drawing and colour mixing skills. You just have to look at kindergarten pictures to see that. There is some variation but they are pretty similiar in ability. Then most people stop drawing and playing with colour. Their colour literacy stays that of a four year old and worse as they will not experiment it probably degrades from there. So what is the quickest way to re-learn colour and colour combinations? Go outside and observe natural colour combinations. Combine these observations with a bit of theory and experimentation and you can be on your way creating your own colour combinations. For example: http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/541666109/ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/541666109/ One other thing. Hackers, programmers and probably writers will have to work hard and re-wire their brain to some extent. Working with text, code or words require different parts of the brain compared to visual tasks like combining colour.
JulianMorrison 19y ago
I'm no artist but I know what I like, and this site seems to generate very nice color groupings algorithmically: http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/ http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/

25 points by dood 19y ago

gibsonf1 19y ago

Yes, but why didn't the author, given his new color choosing ability, not upgrade his grayscale blog?

ecuzzillo 19y ago
What do you mean, why didn't he not upgrade it? He did not upgrade his grayscale blog.
- gibsonf1 19y ago
  Ah yes, thanks for that (too tired to properly negate)

divia 19y ago

Perhaps because they are hackers not painters? :-)

jacobolus 19y ago

Yes. Everyone making interfaces or informational diagrams should understand that value contrast is the most important to human ability to distinguish colors, and should use a color model like Munsell or Lab to pick colors. PS: this text box doesn't let me put (more than 1) literal *s in it; there seems to be no way to escape them so they don't end up emphasizing my text. Lesson: just use markdown.

jkush 19y ago

I know I suck at picking colors. Being color blind doesn't help either! I put together a small service that tells you what colors a url uses. So, if I see a website that has a nice color palette, I use my service to get the hex codes. It's way faster and easier than using the eye dropper! Here's the link: Try putting in http://news.ycombinator.com http://news.ycombinator.com http://www.todotoh.com/rgb/rgbanalysis.aspx http://www.todotoh.com/rgb/rgbanalysis.aspx

edw519 19y ago

Just what we need. Another "expert" comes to a hackers' forum and declares that programmers suck at something else. Yawn.

dood 19y ago
Are you referring to me? I didn't write this, and in fact I pretty much suck at colour, largely for the reasons suggested in the post, so I found it very interesting. Also, I don't think the author was declaring that all programmers suck at color, just that many do, and he then provides some good ways to understand more for those that don't (colour hacks, if you like). Not terribly controversial.
- ptn 19y ago
  I think that what he meant is that hackers sucking at colours is a little bit... irrelevant.
  - edw519 19y ago
    Right. In fact, hackers sucking at anything other that hacking is a little bit... irrelevant. Am I the only one who's getting a little tired of hearing about all the unimportant things that I suck at?

Xichekolas 19y ago

Glad to know I'm not the only one who is chromatically retarded.

ptn 19y ago

I'm wearing black, red, blue, yellow and gray at the moment...

edw519 19y ago
Fade to white.

bootload 19y ago

I have a simpler reason why, colour literacy. Most people at the age of 4-6 have similiar drawing and colour mixing skills. You just have to look at kindergarten pictures to see that. There is some variation but they are pretty similiar in ability. Then most people stop drawing and playing with colour. Their colour literacy stays that of a four year old and worse as they will not experiment it probably degrades from there. So what is the quickest way to re-learn colour and colour combinations? Go outside and observe natural colour combinations. Combine these observations with a bit of theory and experimentation and you can be on your way creating your own colour combinations. For example: http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/541666109/ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/541666109/ One other thing. Hackers, programmers and probably writers will have to work hard and re-wire their brain to some extent. Working with text, code or words require different parts of the brain compared to visual tasks like combining colour.

JulianMorrison 19y ago

I'm no artist but I know what I like, and this site seems to generate very nice color groupings algorithmically: http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/ http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/