By Katherine Andes
Have you ever been working on a web page or e-newsletter and couldn’t quite get a color to match, say, your logo? Or maybe you wanted a text box color to match a product image like a sofa or window covering.
There are two very cool free digital tools (PCs and Macs) for getting those web colors perfect. And you don’t need to have PhotoShop.
I’m a Mac user, so I’ll discuss from the Mac perspective first.
In the Mac Utilities folder there’s a tool called the Digital Color Meter. Open it and keep it in your dock. I find I use it constantly to make web pages and my email newsletter look sharp.
Example: I decide I want my text to be the same color as my logo. So I open the tool and move my mouse over the logo color. The tool then gives me a 6-digit HEX value (numbers and letters). HEX means the color is browser-safe — I don’t really know what that means other than it’s a good thing.
Next, I go to the text and click on the font color tool. Instead of clicking on one of the color options, I enter the numbers in the space most tools provide for custom colors. Some tools require the # sign before the numbers, some don’t.
Once the color values are entered, my new color perfectly matches the source color.
See this fuel control landing page for delivery trucks. On this page, I captured the red and yellow colors from the gas pump image and used them in several charts.
For PCs, you can download the Color Cop.
Easy Furniture Web Tip #85: It’s easy to perfectly and professionally match colors for your web pages, e-newsletters, and banner ads with these free tools.
Katherine Andes is a consultant who specializes in writing custom content for key web pages, including search engine optimization (SEO) — especially in the home improvement market. You can phone her at 559.589.0379 or email at Kathy@AndesAndAssociates.com.