I finally gave that color palette generator a real shot and it actually saved me 3 hours

I was super skeptical about those automatic palette tools because my last few tries gave me ugly combos. But last week I had a client in Denver who wanted a nature theme and I was stuck on greens. After 10 minutes of tweaking the input image it popped out this perfect set of 5 colors that matched exactly what they wanted. Has anyone else found a tool that actually works for picking colors or is it still mostly luck?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.hannah10d ago

Exactly last spring I had a client in Scottsdale who wanted desert sunset tones and I spent three whole days mixing samples by hand trying to land on that dusty orange. I finally caved and tried Color Leap after a buddy swore by it. Uploaded a photo I took of the Superstition Mountains at golden hour and it spit out six colors that were pretty much bang on. The client loved it and I still use that palette for other jobs. So yeah some of those generators are surprisingly solid but I think it really depends on the input image you feed them.

green.mason10d ago

Three days mixing samples by hand just to match a dusty orange? Man that sounds like torture with extra steps. I'm surprised you didn't just throw your color swatches out the window and call it a day. Color Leap must have felt like a magic trick after all that elbow grease though. But you're totally right about the input image being the real MVP here. Garbage in garbage out applies to everything including color pickers apparently. And hey at least now you have a legit excuse to stare at sunsets for work instead of staring at paint cans.