Hi, I need to generate colour palettes for several publications that use colour-coded chapters, so for example, If one has 21 chapters, I need to generate a palette of 21 contrasting colours.

Is there a way of doing this in Illustrator? It’s a right ballache pouring through swatches, and as the publications all have different numbers of chapters, it’s getting rather complicated!

Thanks in advance…

I’ve used Adobe Kuler to generate palettes in the past. Can’t remember if it can output illustrator palette files though.

-j

+1 for kuler

another +1 for kuler

Also, a few more via http://www.noupe.com/tools/40-useful-online-generators.html although I’ve not used them

kuler is great, and yes you can output to illustrator (that is what it is there for). There might also be a readymade set you could build on in the swatch library.

I have always used http://www.colourlovers.com/ which is just a variation on the same theme.

Just had a look at Kuler, how do you increase the palette to more than 5 colours?

Thanks!

unfortunatly your stuck with the five.

what version of Illustrator have you got? have you tried using the ‘colour color guide’?

this is like Kuler but in Illustrator and automatically selects the colours based around the colour in your tool panel. you have the option to select how the colours are selected. (contrasting, complimentary, pentagram etc)

you still won’t get all 20 in one hit but you should be able to bounce one of the given colours back in for another round. and repeat until you have 20 and give a little manual adjustment.

Thanks Phil, I’m using CS5. I think I’ll have to keep trying what you suggested. I was hoping someone had designed some sort of algorithm that would divide the entire spectrum into however many segments are required, or a way of generating a fixed number of colours, all with a similar amount of contrast between them.

Nice little job for someone!