Introduction
Color Schemer Studio is an intuitive application that lets you play with all
sorts of color combinations - as long as you choose from any of the color choices
that this product offers, you can be reasonably sure that your finished color
scheme will be based on scientific color principles.
I had been looking for something similar for a long time now - at our studio,
we create tons of PowerPoint presentations and templates and it's always difficult
and time-consuming to come up with inspiring color combinations while making
sure that the resultant schemes are always relevant to how PowerPoint uses its
own Color Schemes feature.
Although Color Schemer Studio has no PowerPoint integration in the same way
that it integrates with Adobe Photoshop or Corel Painter, the program is closest
to what I was looking for.
About Color Schemer Studio
Color Schemer Studio, as the very name suggests is a color oriented application.
This application can be used for creating new color schemes by mixing the color
values - behind the scenes, the program ensures that good color combinations
are chosen based on color theory.
The product is from the company of the same name. My contact at Color Schemer
was Aaron Epstein - thank you, Aaron.
You can download a trial version of Color
Schemer Studio from their site... They have both Windows and Mac versions
available - and also a free online version! For this review, I'm working with
the Windows version.
Working with Color Schemer Studio
Color Schemer Studio launches with the interface that you can see in the screenshot
below:
Figure 1: An easy, intuitive interface
The interface is easy - I could get working with the product within a few minutes.
The interface has three panels:
- Base Color,
- Matching Colors, and
- Favorite Colors
Base Color is the starting point - typically this would be
your PowerPoint background slide color. You can input this color value by typing
or choosing its hex value or the RGB value of the color.
The Matching Colors panel provides a visual color wheel which
dynamically adds swatches of coordinating colors that work well with the base
color. This is a great place to choose colors for all your chart and fill colors
in a PowerPoint slide. Various color harmonies such as monocromatic, analogus,
etc. are available for you to choose from.
Finally, when you like a color, just drag the swatch to the Favorite
Colors panel to create your color scheme - that's all you need to do!
For text colors, Color Schemer Studio suggest possible text color depending
on good contrast and visibility of text. Just make sure you select the base
color you need, and then choose the Tools | Color Schemer Analyzer option to
summon the dialog box that you can see in Figure 2.
Figure 2: See a preview of which text color works best.
Once the text and fill colors are selected, save your color scheme as a Color
Schemer file (.cs). Since you are creating a color scheme for use in a PowerPoint
presentation, you'll have to select eight colors - these are:
- Background color - this would be your base color in Color Schemer Studio
- Text color
- Shadow color
- Title text color
- Fill color (Accent)
- Fill color (Accent)
- Fill color (Hyperlink)
- Fill color (Visited Hyperlink)
The same color scheme can also be exported into popular color scheme formats
such as Photoshop color swatches, HTML color charts , color sets for Corel Painter,
and many more formats. Unfortunately, there's no automatic way to inject those
color schemes within a PowerPoint presentation, but since you already know which
colors to use, it's just a matter of time going and choosing the same color
values in PowerPoint.
Pricing and Support
Color Schemer Studio costs $49.99 - and all purchases are through a secure,
online server.
Support is great - the site has forums, and a blog. In addition, there is a
Scheme Gallery where users can upload and share their color schemes! They also
have email support.
Conclusion
At $49.99, Color Schemer Studio is a great buy - if you want your colors to
be well-coordinated and chosen, this is an amazing product.
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