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Show HN: Colores – A simple app I built to find color palettes based on words

157 points by manueslapera 12y ago

SeanKilleen 12y ago
Neat tool. Thanks for sharing!
missscripter 12y ago
A brilliant idea!
tobiaswright 12y ago
Interesting solve. I like it.
thisjepisje 12y ago
When I search for "shit" all I get is motivational posters and they're not even brown. edit: Bing images does a way better job than google.
- manueslapera 12y ago
  hmm didnt think of that. Google Images json api is just so easy to use.
dushonok 12y ago
Nice! Though it seems the app is biased towards darker hues
- manueslapera 12y ago
  hmm really? can you give me an example?
  - pllbnk 12y ago
    Try 'rainbow'.
  - stevewilhelm 12y ago
    delight, sublime, spring, coca cola, mcdonald's
  - voltagex_ 12y ago
    Disney.
pocketheyman 12y ago
This is a solid. Simple, intuitive, organized. How long did it take to write?
- manueslapera 12y ago
  I would say a couple of weeks, working maybe an hour a day? so the hardest part was to build the palette login in Go. Im not so good at it and it took me a lot of time, until I found out that someone had already built a palette logic in Go already, then everything was fine.
Globz 12y ago
Solid tool, I like it and might be very useful for future projects!
manueslapera 12y ago
aaaand you guys killed my tiniy Digital Ocean server.
heiselberg 12y ago
Great idea! I will absolutely usw this
thekylemontag 12y ago
Hope DO comes back up soon! I want to check this out.
- popey456963 12y ago
  Judging by how good the comments are when it is up, I hope it recovers soon too =)
ch4s3 12y ago
I love it! This is a really fun idea. My favorite so far is 'coin operated helicopter'
daddykotex 12y ago
I really like that, that it's nice a idea to build palettes on related images. I thought you would have a special formula that matches words with specific colors!
xmpirate 12y ago
this is awesome!
jackmaney 12y ago
Cool! How does the color selection work? Is it just the five most common colors in a given image, or is it more sophisticated than that?
henningo 12y ago
Nice implementation - less is more! What algorithm did you use for color extraction? I seem to getting colors with the correct hue, but too low saturation? (example: Ferrari) You could also imagine to not show colors with very low saturation (ie. white/gray/blacks). I've previously used Colorific [1] which seems to address some of those things! [1] http://99designs.com/tech-blog/blog/2012/05/11/color-analysis/ http://99designs.com/tech-blog/blog/2012/05/11/color-analysi...
- Cyranix 12y ago
  I'm also curious about the algorithm, since a search for "google" results in a palette that only features one color out of the company's primary-plus-green motif. Seems like backgrounds (white in the case of Google, black in the case of demotivational posters) are weighted a little too strongly, perhaps.
elros 12y ago
Hey compañero, that's very cool! I wonder how hard would it be to add the query to the URL so that I can paste it to someone? :-)
- aepearson 12y ago
  Another really good idea - I just sent this to some of our design guys and they love it. Having a link for specific results could be a great addition for sharing.
- dylanlacom 12y ago
  came here to say the same thing :) +1!
- manueslapera 12y ago
  oh, didnt think about it, that seems like a very very easy implementation actually.
aepearson 12y ago
So simple - but so cool. What a great idea. My only "critique" would be to make the hex codes copy/paste ready in the results. I like the links to dribble, but I'd really like to just be able to quickly copy/paste the hex codes.
- manueslapera 12y ago
  good point! What i'm thinking of doing is add a link to colourco.de so you can see the palettes there.
ecesena 12y ago
Really cool! If it can help, I was searching "gluten free" and the very first result contains colors very very similar, almost indistinguishable: #E51C20 vs #EF1A21, and #F4F2EC vs #FFF
padho 12y ago
Congrats, this is a nice idea and an awesome execution of it. :)
austinhutch 12y ago
Can you share any of the source? I would really like to learn how you did this. Awesome job, I love it!
canthonytucci 12y ago
works incredibly well. a fantastic idea. you should sign your work! Drop at least a link to your twitter at the bottom, this is a great tool.
- manueslapera 12y ago
  thanks! thats a good point. I thought that the subdomain on my personal page was enough.
thrush 12y ago
Would love to have an option to store state in the query string or hash so that I could share my favorite palette :)
damon_c 12y ago
I'm going to guess, google image search and take the most common colors from the 1st couple of images?
allworknoplay 12y ago
This is pretty great! I think maybe there's a little too much averaging going on? I get a lot of muted colors and way more browns than expected. For example, try "America" or "France" or "China" (I actually first tried "murica") and you might expect to see pretty standard bright colors, but it's not so much the case. The query where I got exactly what I expected was "fabulous".
- bottled_poe 12y ago
  I'm not sure how "America" is associated with particular colours. Perhaps if you search "american flag" you would get what you want?
sevilo 12y ago
nice! I found myself having to dig around the internet when it comes to looking for colour palette for graphic design, the links to related works on dribble are very helpful too

157 points by manueslapera 12y ago

SeanKilleen 12y ago

Neat tool. Thanks for sharing!

missscripter 12y ago

A brilliant idea!

tobiaswright 12y ago

Interesting solve. I like it.

thisjepisje 12y ago

When I search for "shit" all I get is motivational posters and they're not even brown. edit: Bing images does a way better job than google.

manueslapera 12y ago
hmm didnt think of that. Google Images json api is just so easy to use.

dushonok 12y ago

Nice! Though it seems the app is biased towards darker hues

manueslapera 12y ago
hmm really? can you give me an example?
- pllbnk 12y ago
  Try 'rainbow'.
- stevewilhelm 12y ago
  delight, sublime, spring, coca cola, mcdonald's
- voltagex_ 12y ago
  Disney.

pocketheyman 12y ago

This is a solid. Simple, intuitive, organized. How long did it take to write?

manueslapera 12y ago
I would say a couple of weeks, working maybe an hour a day? so the hardest part was to build the palette login in Go. Im not so good at it and it took me a lot of time, until I found out that someone had already built a palette logic in Go already, then everything was fine.

Globz 12y ago

Solid tool, I like it and might be very useful for future projects!

manueslapera 12y ago

aaaand you guys killed my tiniy Digital Ocean server.

heiselberg 12y ago

Great idea! I will absolutely usw this

thekylemontag 12y ago

Hope DO comes back up soon! I want to check this out.

popey456963 12y ago
Judging by how good the comments are when it is up, I hope it recovers soon too =)

ch4s3 12y ago

I love it! This is a really fun idea. My favorite so far is 'coin operated helicopter'

daddykotex 12y ago

I really like that, that it's nice a idea to build palettes on related images. I thought you would have a special formula that matches words with specific colors!

xmpirate 12y ago

this is awesome!

jackmaney 12y ago

Cool! How does the color selection work? Is it just the five most common colors in a given image, or is it more sophisticated than that?

henningo 12y ago

Nice implementation - less is more! What algorithm did you use for color extraction? I seem to getting colors with the correct hue, but too low saturation? (example: Ferrari) You could also imagine to not show colors with very low saturation (ie. white/gray/blacks). I've previously used Colorific [1] which seems to address some of those things! [1] http://99designs.com/tech-blog/blog/2012/05/11/color-analysis/ http://99designs.com/tech-blog/blog/2012/05/11/color-analysi...

Cyranix 12y ago
I'm also curious about the algorithm, since a search for "google" results in a palette that only features one color out of the company's primary-plus-green motif. Seems like backgrounds (white in the case of Google, black in the case of demotivational posters) are weighted a little too strongly, perhaps.

elros 12y ago

Hey compañero, that's very cool! I wonder how hard would it be to add the query to the URL so that I can paste it to someone? :-)

aepearson 12y ago
Another really good idea - I just sent this to some of our design guys and they love it. Having a link for specific results could be a great addition for sharing.
dylanlacom 12y ago
came here to say the same thing :) +1!
manueslapera 12y ago
oh, didnt think about it, that seems like a very very easy implementation actually.

aepearson 12y ago

So simple - but so cool. What a great idea. My only "critique" would be to make the hex codes copy/paste ready in the results. I like the links to dribble, but I'd really like to just be able to quickly copy/paste the hex codes.

manueslapera 12y ago
good point! What i'm thinking of doing is add a link to colourco.de so you can see the palettes there.

ecesena 12y ago

Really cool! If it can help, I was searching "gluten free" and the very first result contains colors very very similar, almost indistinguishable: #E51C20 vs #EF1A21, and #F4F2EC vs #FFF

padho 12y ago

Congrats, this is a nice idea and an awesome execution of it. :)

austinhutch 12y ago

Can you share any of the source? I would really like to learn how you did this. Awesome job, I love it!

canthonytucci 12y ago

works incredibly well. a fantastic idea. you should sign your work! Drop at least a link to your twitter at the bottom, this is a great tool.

manueslapera 12y ago
thanks! thats a good point. I thought that the subdomain on my personal page was enough.

thrush 12y ago

Would love to have an option to store state in the query string or hash so that I could share my favorite palette :)

damon_c 12y ago

I'm going to guess, google image search and take the most common colors from the 1st couple of images?

allworknoplay 12y ago

This is pretty great! I think maybe there's a little too much averaging going on? I get a lot of muted colors and way more browns than expected. For example, try "America" or "France" or "China" (I actually first tried "murica") and you might expect to see pretty standard bright colors, but it's not so much the case. The query where I got exactly what I expected was "fabulous".

bottled_poe 12y ago
I'm not sure how "America" is associated with particular colours. Perhaps if you search "american flag" you would get what you want?

sevilo 12y ago

nice! I found myself having to dig around the internet when it comes to looking for colour palette for graphic design, the links to related works on dribble are very helpful too