FAQ
Find answers to the most commonly asked questions about the Adobe® Kuler™ online service.
- Product information
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What is Adobe Kuler?
Adobe Kuler is a web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. Whether creating websites, interior designs, scrapbooks, fabric patterns, graphic identities, or any other visual, you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community. Designed both to stand alone and to complement Adobe Creative Suite® software, Kuler uses Adobe Flash® technology to bring you online tools for color theme creation. And developers can use the Kuler APIs to bring color themes to any application.
Color themes can be created in a variety of color spaces, including RGB, CMYK, and LAB, and can be represented as hex values for use on the web. You can tag themes, comment on them, and share them with others. Browse thousands of themes created by the Kuler community sorted by newest, most popular, highest rated, or by random order, and search for themes by tag word, title, creator, or hex color value.
Owners of certain components of Adobe Creative Suite software, including Adobe Photoshop® CS5, Illustrator® CS5, InDesign® CS5, Fireworks® CS5, and Flash CS5 Professional, can access Kuler via built-in panels. Owners of Creative Suite 3 and Creative Suite 2 can download any public theme as an Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) file for import and use of the theme in their artwork.
What do I need to use Kuler?
Use of Kuler is free and can be accessed by anyone with an Adobe ID (the same ID you use in the Adobe Store and for other services). There is no charge to create an Adobe ID — all you need to do is register. If you have accessed any preview from Adobe Labs such as Adobe Buzzword® or Adobe Media Player software, you probably already have an Adobe ID. Review the Terms of Use for a better understanding of how to use Kuler.
Are there other ways to access Kuler themes?
There are multiple ways you can access Kuler themes:
- Kuler panels in Creative Suite 4 software — Kuler panels, built entirely with Flash technology, are available within Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Fireworks CS5, and Flash CS5 Professional.
Creative Suite 4 customers can browse the most popular, the highest rated, and the most recently created themes. Any public theme can be downloaded to the Swatches panel with a single click and immediately used in coloring artwork, or the theme can be modified and saved from the Create pane of the Kuler panel. Kuler themes are easily passed between CS5 applications via the Saved themes in the Kuler panel.
- RSS feeds — You can subscribe to RSS feeds of the most popular, highest rated, and newest themes via the Kuler website.
- Adobe Kuler desktop — The multiplatform Kuler desktop, built for the Adobe AIR™ runtime, lets you browse themes by newest, most popular, highest rated, or by random order, both offline and when connected.
You can also search for themes by tag word, title, creator, or hex color value, and drag and drop themes to the desktop. Themes can be downloaded as ASE files, loaded directly into the Swatches panels in Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign, or copied and pasted as hex values to the clipboard. Adobe AIR must be installed to use the Kuler desktop. - Apple Dashboard widget for Mac OS X — The Dashboard widget (ZIP, 161K) lets you browse themes by newest, most popular, and highest rated. You can also copy and past theme color hex values to the clipboard.
- Kuler APIs — Developers can use Kuler APIs to incorporate Kuler themes into their creations using standard API calls to access the Kuler RSS feeds.
What is the difference between Kuler and the Kuler desktop?
Kuler is a web-hosted application and community site with tools for creating color themes as well as browsing, searching, and downloading themes from the Kuler community.
The Kuler desktop uses the RSS feeds from Kuler for browsing, searching, and downloading themes. You don’t have the capability to create themes with the Kuler desktop; however, the Kuler desktop provides some unique capabilities, such as letting you "tear off" themes to your desktop, copy themes directly into the Swatches panels in Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign, and view cached themes while offline.
Who is the audience for Kuler?
Anyone seeking creative inspiration around color, as well as those who need a useful tool for finding, creating, and sharing color harmonies.
How many color themes can I save on Kuler?
Currently, there is no limit to the number of themes you can save on your Mykuler page within Kuler.
In what languages is Kuler offered?
At this time, Kuler is offered only in English, but is designed to be accessible to anyone who has a keen interest in color.
What are the main features and benefits of the latest Kuler update?
The Kuler update adds the ability to generate themes from uploaded photos or other bitmap images. Unique color extraction technology lets you choose from five mood presets: colorful, bright, muted, deep, and dark. You can also select movable markers on the image to extract specific colors.
Flickr™ images can also be used to create a new theme: Click the Flickr button on the Kuler interface to easily browse images to upload. Sign in to your Flickr account to browse your own images or images by your Flickr contacts.
Themes can be browsed based on the time period they were created — the last 7 days, last 30 days, or all days — to surface more user-generated content.
Kuler now supports an unlimited number of favorite themes, which you can select from the thousands of public themes and store in Mykuler. Favorite themes can now be browsed in the same manner as other themes.
The Kuler update also provides a new random sorting option that displays published themes in random order.
Do I have to be an Adobe Creative Suite customer to take advantage of Kuler?
No. Anyone can use Kuler to create, share, and exchange color themes online. Designers and developers working in web creation and development can copy and paste hex values directly into their web development software. However, owners of Creative Suite 5, Creative Suite 4, Creative Suite 3, or Creative Suite 2 software have the added ability to download Kuler color themes as an Adobe Swatch Exchange file for use in certain components of that software.
- Kuler panels in Creative Suite 4 software — Kuler panels, built entirely with Flash technology, are available within Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Fireworks CS5, and Flash CS5 Professional.
- Technical information
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What is Adobe Swatch Exchange?
Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) is a file format that was introduced in Creative Suite 2. It allows customers to import and export color swatches via the Swatches panel, enabling easy sharing of color swatches between certain Creative Suite 4, Creative Suite 3, and Creative Suite 2 components.
What components of Adobe Creative Suite support ASE files?
Adobe Creative Suite 4, 3, and 2 components, including Illustrator CS5, CS3, and CS2; Photoshop CS5 Extended, CS5, CS3 Extended, CS3, and CS2; and InDesign CS5, CS3, and CS2 (requires an Adobe ID).
Why don’t other Creative Suite components, such as Flash Professional and Adobe Dreamweaver®, support ASE files?
The ASE file format was developed by Adobe for Creative Suite 2 before the acquisition of Macromedia. While deep integration was made across the various components of the Creative Suite family, support of ASE files was not part of that integration effort. However, users of Adobe Flash CS5 Professional software can access Kuler through the Kuler panels in Creative Suite 4.
How is Kuler integrated into Creative Suite 4 components?
Kuler panels, built entirely with Adobe Flash technology, are available within Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Fireworks CS5, and Flash CS5 Professional software. The Kuler panel can be accessed from the application main menu by selecting Windows > Extensions > Kuler. This panel, which behaves just like any other panel in Creative Suite 4 components, provides direct access to the Kuler community from the application workspace.
With the Kuler panel, Creative Suite 4 customers can browse the RSS feeds of the most popular, the highest rated, and the most recently created themes and subscribe to custom feeds, such as a particular tag word or creator name. Any theme can be downloaded to the Swatches panel with a single click and immediately used in coloring artwork, or the theme can be modified and saved from the Create pane of the Kuler panel. Kuler themes are easily passed between applications via the Saved theme in the Kuler panel. In addition, color groups of three to five swatches created in Creative Suite 4 components can be uploaded to Kuler as Kuler themes through the Kuler panel.
Why does the Kuler panel in Illustrator CS5 not include a Create pane?
Illustrator CS5 and Kuler share underlying technology. Kuler is based on a subset of the color technology found in the Live Color feature in Illustrator CS5. In Illustrator CS5 you use Live Color to create and modify color themes.
What are the differences between Kuler and the Live Color feature in Illustrator CS5?
While Kuler and Live Color share underlying technologies for creating color harmonies, Live Color is designed to support the needs of Illustrator customers who are creating and editing original artwork, and who need to control color for producing artwork for various media. Kuler lets you create harmonious color themes quickly, with the same professional technology used for creating themes in Live Color. Live Color in Illustrator CS5 lets you both create color harmonies and interactively apply colors and color harmonies to any selected artwork. Live Color includes the Color Guide panel, where you can create color schemes based on 23 color harmony rules or create your own custom themes. Kuler provides six color harmony rules and also allows for member-created custom harmonies.
Color themes in Kuler must be composed of three to five colors. Color themes in Live Color can be composed of any number of colors. Live Color provides powerful controls for remapping colors to a particular color library, such as PANTONE® colors, as well as options for quickly reducing the number of colors in a design — for example, when full-color artwork must be output in two colors. The capabilities of Live Color can be explored in more detail on the Illustrator CS5 pages.
In what languages is the Kuler panel available?
The Kuler website is English only. Functionality within the Kuler panel is localized in all CS5 languages except French, where the panel is not available.
Is Adobe now entering the web-hosted application and services space?
Like any forward-looking software business, Adobe is looking at new ways to deliver its technologies to the market. Delivering Software as a Service (SaaS) is gaining industry momentum, especially in segments where customer demand and the ability to deliver a stellar customer experience go hand in hand. Today Adobe delivers multiple technologies as hosted services and with Creative Suite 4 is introducing online services for creative professionals, a portfolio of services for community, collaboration, and productivity.
What services are included in online services for creative professionals?
Included in the online services are Acrobat.com, Adobe ConnectNow, Adobe Bridge Home, Adobe Community Help, Adobe InContext Editing (coming soon), Kuler, Adobe Media Player, and Resource Central. For more information, see the online services for creative professionals pages.
