One of the most important aspects of any given web site is the color palette used in its design. Studies in color theory have shown that this goes beyond personal preference taps into something psychological. For the web, colors must be readable and easy on the eyes without being incredibly boring or too wild. Most websites go with a white page and a dark blue or black text for the general text because this is the easiest to read. Some sites use black backgrounds or dark gray backgrounds with white text, but these are often gaming sites for young people who can play an RPG for 12 hours on a screen the size of a Saltine, so the eye strain that has been known to come from this is often forgiven.

In choosing colors for your site, there are several things to consider. How many colors in the palette, what the colors will say about your site, etc. Fortunately, there are some very good tools available for help in establishing good color palettes on the web.

1. ColorSchemer - A very intuitive piece of software with many variables for tweaking a color palette after creating it. This dual-platform tool costs $49.99 per license. Is it worth it? Download the trial version and decide for yourself. Also note the 100%-free application on this site, ColorSchemer ColorPix, a good little desktop tool for isolating various values of a color anywhere on the screen. If you’re stuck, check out the ColorSchemer Gallery for color palettes made by other users and offered up to designers.

2. The DeGraeve Color Palette Generator - There are other tools like this available, but this one was one of the first. You upload an image to the generator, and based on the colors in that image, a color palette is made.

3. ColorBlender - A lot like ColorSchemer, but with the bonus of being free. Not much can be done outside of direct edit mode, but this is good for some quick color brainstorming.