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Kuler is a brilliant site dedicated to color. This post is going to focus on the free version of Kuler available online. But check back later, because I’m planning a follow-up post to showcase the Kuler tools that come packaged with the new Adobe Creative Suite 4.

So, where do you find Kuler? http://kuler.adobe.com/
Just a quick warning, if you do not have the latest Flash player installed, the site is going to ask you to download and install it before you can view the site. You’ll have to close out of all of your open applications and restart, so be prepared.

Once you’re on the Kuler site, you’ll see a pretty simple home page. The large colors across the top represent the color theme that is currently rated highest. The main menu is to the left, a sampling of the most popular color themes with a small description is in the center, and news items are to the right.

If you click on Themes, you’ll be taken to the newest themes page. You can decide if you want to look at the newest, most popular, highest rated, or random themes (color combinations). If you have registered and are signed in, you can rate each them as well as leave comments.

Use the small arrows at the bottom of the theme list to move forward or backward through the themes. Click the double-arrow to switch to a three-column view.

If you find a color combination (theme) that you like, you can click on the changes and values icon (shown in the upper right corner of this screenshot).

This will take you to a page that will show you the HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB and HEX values for each color in the theme. Write down these values to copy this color combination for a project, or edit the colors to create your own theme.

Click to chose how you would like to edit the color: HSV, RGB, CMYK or LAB, then move the black triangle sliders under the colored bars to mix your own original color. Make changes to another color in the theme by clicking on it, then move those sliders to edit that color. There is also a slider above the main theme colors that will make the color darker or lighter.

Kuler color was meant to work with the color wheel and the color theory rules (remember these terms from school?) By clicking on Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, etc., you can see what color combination is created using the current base color. This is a great way to come up with color combinations for hard-to-combine colors that just don’t seem to work with any color scheme. You can choose a new base color by rolling over another color, and selecting “Set as Base.” You can also remove a color if you want a color combination that uses less than five colors. And, if that wasn’t amazing enough, you can move the color targets inside the color wheel and create new color schemes, based on the same color relationship. Click on Custom, and you can move each color one at a time, without affecting or editing any other colors. If you like your new color combination, and you are signed in, you can name, tag and save your new theme.

Want to create a color combination from scratch? Just click on Create From a Color. Or, perhaps you have an image that you want to design around? Go to Create From an Image to upload an image. Kuler will automatically create color combinations from your photo using the mood that you choose, or move the targets around yourself for a custom color combination.

Kuler has even more features than I was able to cover in this post. For example, it has a very powerful search tool. If you search for beach, you’ll get plenty of beachy color schemes. If you want to learn more about Kuler, the best place to start is with the FAQ’s in their help section. Adobe also has a very nice overview of Kuler on its website.

I hope that this post has helped to familiarize you with the capabilities of the Kuler website. It really is a very powerful tool — it’s a lot of fun when you’re feeling creative, and it’s a lifesaver when you’ve had a long day and you need a little creative boost. I know that I’ve used it more than once when I’ve had clients with odd corporate colors that were hard to match. If anything, it’s a great jumping-off point.