It’s only been a couple of days since I posted a blurb about COLOURlovers, but I’m hooked. I see COLOURlovers colours when I lie awake in bed at night. I’ve even started spelling “color” with a “u.” I’ve already added about 25 colours, and I can’t stop clicking though new colours, voting and looking for new favorites.
Even if you don’t share my love for colours, you may need to select a colour for a web page or design. The web is a wealth of inspiration and COLOURlovers should be your first stop. But just in case you can’t find what you’re looking for, here’s a tip for using DigitalColor Meter, an easily overlooked utility that makes selecting colors a snap.
You’ll find DigitalColor Meter in the Applications/Utilities folder. Launch the application and select RGB As Hex Value, 8-bit from the pop-up menu. Move the cursor around the screen until you find a color you like (you can adjust the Aperture Size slider; I prefer sliding it all the way to the left and sweeping the screen slowly, like scanning a beach for buried treasure with a metal detector). You’ll see the RGB values and colour swatch update as you move your mouse.
To copy a color, make sure DigitalColor Meter is the foremost application, then click Shift-Command-C. You can then paste the color values (the Hex code numbers) into your COLOURlovers colour number field, or into your HTML document. DigitalColor Meter will add quotes and a pound sign (e.g., “#CCCCCC”), which you’ll want to delete after you paste the number into COLOURlovers.
Open Preferences and slide the Magnification Factor all the way to the right, then sweep your screen. You’ll be amazed at how many interesting colours you’ll be able to find, regardless of what’s displayed on your monitor. There’s hidden treasure buried in all those pixels. With 8-bits of colour, you’ve got 16 million potential colours lurking in there, and they’re all waiting to be mined and named by you.
Be sure to visit COLOURlovers and vote for my colours. Post a comment under my profile on COLOURlovers when you join so I can find you and vote for your colours.
