by Chita Hunter
Whether the realm is web, print, fashion or any medium in-between, today’s creative, designer, photographer, printer, or aspiring artist, will tell you how important color is. Color is all around us and whether vibrant or muted; color inspires us, calms us and causes us to act and behave in a certain way.
While nature often, so easily it seems, puts together the perfect color palette, we humans are not always so fortunate. Some of us are graceful at it and some of us are just plain color blind. We never know when or where a color will capture our attention or inspire us to use it as “perfect for that project.”
No credible designer will tell you that “Color inspiration only happens in the office looking at swatch books.” Far from it. So what happens when you see that perfect color or color combination while you are out and about, and you have no way to capture it? Sure you pull out your iPhone and take a photo of it. Well, now you have an image, but still, what color is that? Are you now going to go back to the office and hold up swatch books to your iPhone? Don’t fret. There is an app for that. Color Expert.
Color Expert by Code Line, released in 2008 and recently updated, places among it’s many features, (6) Pantone color libraries, (1) Web Safe color library, and (1) HTML color library at your fingertips.
Using the Color Wheel option and preset swatches, you can create unlimited color palettes, perusing color combinations in the Monochrome, Analogous, Complementary, Split Complementary and Triadic color Schemes. And let’s not leave out Custom. Color Wheel Type options are Artistic (traditional) and Scientific (based on light). Color Expert’s recent update adds a few new features and a more streamlined interface.
Color Expert is available at the App Store for $9.99 here:
One new feature, the “Image Picker” utility, extracts colors from photos that you take with your iPhone and displays approximate RGB, CMYK or Pantone values for them. With this information you can go back and match up colors in any medium. This is a great help in traversing the color shifts that you undoubtedly see going from medium to medium.
You can then save and email this new color palette to anyone or yourself. This email can contain a lot of information. The image taken; color palette name and swatches with all the RGB, HEX, CMYK and Pantone values; as well as an Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) file. This .ase file can then be loaded into any compatible program. Several of my favorites: Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
Color Expert is not meant to replace the color matching system you are already using, but compliment it. If you work with color, this app might just be a must have.
Code Line has a
great screencast that gets you quickly up to speed on the features of Color Expert.
Tags: Code Line, Color Expert, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Pantone
Color Expert
Color Expert turns your iPhone/iPod touch into a color library even allowing you to use your images as sources to identify and match colors for use in your projects.
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Technology Instructor and Presenter. Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, InDesign, InCopy, Illustrator. Trains corporations and individuals. Instructor: Photoshop CS5, InDesign CS5 and Acrobat Professional Pro Continuing Ed classes at Schoolcraft College. For Hire ;-)
Hello there… Great app and great review. Thanks!
Does the brightness of the screen or the light of the room (at the moment you take the picture) affects the results? What your getting vs. what your seeing?
Thanks Susana,
I’ve found that the brightness setting of the iPhone screen does not come into play with the image that is taken. But certainly, the type of light (incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, etc.) in the room and outside (sunlight, cloud-covered, etc.) does.
That’s why you always view the paint color swatch or material under the lighting conditions of the intended use. The iPhone camera and Color Expert will get you in the ballpark of the color you see, to then find the color you want.