A while back, I posted about ColorBrewer, an online map-oriented tool for experimenting with different map coloring schemes. It’s a great tool, but with a limited number of color palettes to choose from, and no capability to modify them or create your own. Kuler is an online color palette creator from Adobe (Flash, multi-platform; free registration required) that lets you create and view your own color palette, or browse and modify palettes created by others. There’s a ranking system that lets you give a rating (1-5 stars) for palettes, and you can browse by popular (most downloads) or highest star ratings.
If your graphics application supports Adobe Swatch Exchange files (*.ase), you can download a swatch file from the application. If not, you’ll have to write down the color specs down (HSV, CMYK, RGB, LAB or HEX) from the settings in the Create window for your new palette. For an existing palette, click on the “Make changes …” button at middle right:
If you want to enter ColorBrewer palettes into Kuler for experimentation and modification, you can download an Excel file with RGB values from the ColorBrewer updates page.
Other posts in the Cartography Tools series
- PDFCreator
- Printing Large Maps On A Small Printer
- Printing Waterproof Maps
- Public Land Survey Systems (PLSS) Shapefiles And Geocoding
- Screen Capture Programs
- Free Map Symbols
- In-Browser Web Page Image Capture
- Better Map Color Schemes With ColorBrewer
- New "Fixed" Versions Of SRTM-90 Data Available
- US/Global Terrain Shading Data And Landcover Imagery
- “Making Maps” Blog
- Highway Sign Fonts
- Analyzing Visual Clutter In Maps With Software
- Downloadable Cartograms From Worldmapper
- Creating Map Color Schemes With Kuler And ColorBrewer
- Additional Color Applications For Maps And Design
- One More Color Design Resource
- Tiling And Printing Large Maps To Scale On A Small Printer
- Recoloring Or Modifying GeoTiff Images
- More Color Design Resources
- Evaluating Map Graphics For Color-Blind Viewers
- Calculate New Coordinate Position From Current Position, Bearing And Distance
- Tiling Large Maps For A Small Printer With PosteRazor
- Free Surveying Software For Windows, Pocket PC And Palm
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