1. Adobe Kuler As always, Adobe provides some of the best web and graphic design tools. Kuler is an online tool that you can use to create and save color themes as well as browse existing themes. Sometimes coming up with a color scheme can be difficult, so taking a look at the themes can help jumpstart your creativity and give you an idea of what sort of colors work together.
In addition to searching through themes, new themes, and popular themes, you can also type in a keyword or a color you're looking for. Kuler will pull up themes with that color so you can narrow your search and browse only the colors you're interested in.
Adobe Kuler
2. Color Scheme Designer 3 Color is one of the most important aspects of design; the colors you choose convey the entire theme of the site, along with any subliminal connotations that people associate with the color. It's important to choose colors wisely and choose colors that work well together, so we're going to look at another tool for choosing colors.
The Color Scheme Designer 3 is a tool that you can use to find any hue from the color picker and select a color scheme, such as monochromatic (all colors used are in the same family, such as all yellows including tints and shades) and complementary (two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel, such as red and green). Although it's not perfect, it can help you pick colors and get a general idea of what sort of color scheme you might want to go with. In addition to giving you a color palette that changes instantly to whatever color you choose on the picker, it also gives you the RGB and hexadecimal values, so you can easily incorporate them into your design or duplicate them in Photoshop. Plus, you have the ability to adjust the scheme to change brightness and contrast as well as see how different users with different needs would visualize it (such as people who are colorblind).
Color Scheme Designer
3. Fonts.com by Monotype Imaging Designers know how important it is to use the right font to display content. Although it may seem like elements such as images should get the most attention, and although this is very important, you want to keep your written content in mind as well. After all, people generally go to a website to gather information. So the text should be seamless, easy to read, and go with the theme. Choosing the right font can be difficult, and sometimes it can be expensive. Thankfully, we have some free web tools for browsing and downloading free font types. One of the best ones I've come across thus far is fonts.com.
Fonts.com gives you a wide range of fonts to choose from, and many big name developers to browse by, such as Adobe and Monotype. There are fonts that come with a price tag, but you can look at the free ones by clicking "Find Fonts" and then "Free Fonts." You have to create an account to download, but it's free and doesn't take long to do.
Fonts.com
4. Icon Finder When producing content for a website, it can be hard to find free icons for buttons or visual representations. Thankfully, there are a few good resources for finding free icons that you can use on your website; you just have to pay attention to the license restrictions for each icon. Most of them just require you to give credit to the creator, or only use the icon in certain ways.
The best website I've used for free icons is Icon Finder. You can browse by size, background color, and license type. Plus, many of the icons come in several different sizes, so you're sure to find the size you're looking for. So if you need to find an icon for a well known brand (such as a Mastercard icon to put on your check-out page) or just want to browse some icons for inspiration, then Icon Finder is the right place to go.
IconFinder
5. MorgueFile Looking through photos can be one of the best triggers for inspiration. But what happens if you find a photo you really like and want to use it on your website? Generally, copyright restrictions would keep you from using it; however, if you use a stock photo and abide by the license restrictions, then you're not prohibited from using it. MorgueFile is one of the best sites for free stock photos. Most of the photos can be used with a catch - you can't use the original photo unedited. This means that you have to make some changes in a program like Adobe Photoshop CS4. However, it is not that difficult to make a few changes and give credit to the creator.
You can search for a phrase or a keyword, and once you've started your search, you can refine it by choosing the size limitations, categories, color, and date, among other things. MorgueFile is easy to browse and use, and the pictures already have big dimensions, so you won't need to make them any bigger for your projects.
MorgueFile
These are just a few of the many resources available out there, but they will enable you to gain inspiration and get a fuller body concept of what you want your website to look like. You can discuss your findings and your concept vision with a web design company, like Codank Web Design, to make your idea a reality.
About CODANK Web Design
CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.
For more information, visit us at www.codank.com
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