7 Color scheme tools to develop an accessible brand identity for your small business
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I struggled with finding the right color scheme for my business. It can be overwhelming and stressful to find the right fit for your business and be conscious of accessibility and personality concerns.
I used a few color scheme tools that finally helped me decide on my color scheme and color palette. There are so many tools that can help you be conscious of accessibility standards and ones that will help you find the right color scheme for your brand identity.
With some of these color tools, you can access other tools that can help you devise your website or other projects you might be contemplating. I know most businesses are all about creating better websites for your customers and converting them, but these tools can also help you make other digital or print projects for your clients.
Take a look at some of the color scheme tools to find the best option for your small business.
Finding your brand’s color scheme
Coolors
Coolors has become one of my favorite color scheme tools as of late. This tool can help you create a whole color scheme or offer you various choices for your selected colors at the hit of a space bar.
If you’ve been trying to find a color scheme for your business, this color scheme tool will give you as many colors as you want. I would choose no more than 7, including your black and white choices. If you’ve already selected one or a few colors for your brand identity, you can lock those colors into place and let Coolors find your missing colors.
Not only can you find various color schemes, but you can also pinpoint specific color palettes and change the formats, such as RGB or CMYK. The webpage is relatively user friendly and offers many different options, like color blindness and extracting a theme from an image.
Adobe Color
Adobe Color is one of my favorite ways to generate a color scheme for brands. Compared to Coolors, it allows you to control your color schemes a bit more, so I would know more about color theory and how to pick appropriate color schemes when using Adobe Color.
If you’re starting with Adobe Color, begin by finding a photo that allows you to extract a color scheme first. Starting this way will help you narrow down what colors you like to associate with your brand identity.
You can also choose your color palette depending on your base color selection. No matter what you choose, you can manually manipulate your color scheme and still stay within the color palette selection you’ve chosen.
Color Converter
I love using Color Converter for a variety of reasons. While this color scheme tool doesn’t help you find a color scheme, it will help you determine your color’s alternative color identities.
I first used Color Converter to change my color selections from HSL and HEX color codes into RGB and CMYK colors to use in Adobe Illustrator. Color Converter will be able to change your color into any identity that you want to use regardless of its original designation.
Once you’ve determined your color scheme, it is helpful to have a running list of alternatives to use with your color scheme, depending on the project you will start. Some might be familiar to you, like white or black, but you should be familiar with your primary and secondary colors as well.
Color Mind
While I’ve had the least experience with Color Mind, I consider it one of the most practical sites that I’ve encountered. Not only does the web site create a color scheme for you, but it also applies the colors to a website to view them.
I’d highly recommend this site if you are struggling with applying your color scheme to your business. The application of your color selections can extend into your projects or your website. The site starts with a website’s configuration and further categorizes your color scheme into your main and supporting colors.
The web page also offers two different options for your color scheme, light on dark and dark on light. These options give you two other options while still staying within your color scheme.
Color Accessibility tools
Color Safe
I enjoy using Color Safe because it allows you to see possible pairings with your selected colors to combine when you create a project that will be safe to use for people with hard-of-sight impairments. It will give you options, but it will provide you with possible options outside of your color scheme.
I would use Color Safe when developing your color scheme to establish an accessible color palette from the start.
Contrast-Ratio
You can see your contrast-ratio between your selected colors when you input the HEX codes into this web page. A safe ratio would be around a 7, but the higher, the better.
The best aspect of this web page is that it is easy to use and is very straight-forward. The web page sticks with only determining the ratio and will show you how the colors look against each other. If you compare black and white font colors, you might evaluate if an off-color would be better than a bright white or true black.
Colour Contrast
Colour Contrast is a bit more in-depth than Contrast-Ratio. While Contrast-Ratio will provide you with a number, Colour Contrast will also allow you to change saturation, hue, fonts, and more to determine how well your colors will contrast on a project.
I would use Colour Contrast when determining other long-term projects, like your website. Contrast-Ratio will help with other tasks when you need to combine colors, whereas Colour Contrast will give you more variety to make changes if required.
