Kuler features
Accessing Kuler in
Creative Suite 5
new
Get fast access to Adobe® Kuler™ right where you work with new Kuler panels. Search, browse, and create themes, and then add them to your application's Swatches panel with one click. Find Kuler panels in Adobe Photoshop® CS5, Illustrator® CS5, InDesign® CS5.5, Fireworks® CS5, and Adobe Flash® Professional CS5.5 software by choosing Window > Extensions > Kuler.
Browsing themes
Browse themes by Newest, Most Popular, Highest Rated, or Random options. Select the time frame for your results — within the last 7 days, within 30 days, or since the first release of Kuler.
Kuler touch app
Generate and view color themes on the go using the Adobe Kuler app, an extension of the full Adobe Kuler service. Create, explore, download, and save color themes wherever you are inspired.
Searching themes
Quickly search thousands of themes in the Kuler community by tag word, title, creator, or hex color value. Or click a member's name or avatar to search for themes by that member. Use wildcards to broaden your search, and place asterisks around keywords on multiword tags.
Downloading themes
Download public themes in Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) format to use as color swatches in Adobe Creative Suite® 5, 4, 3, and 2 components, including Adobe Illustrator® CS5, CS4, CS3, and CS2; Photoshop® CS5 Extended, CS4, CS3 Extended, CS3, and CS2; and InDesign® CS5, CS4, CS3, and CS2 (requires an Adobe ID).
Creating new themes
Use the intuitive tools in Kuler to quickly create new color themes. Choose a color rule, use the interactive color wheel, extract colors from an image, or input color values.
Modify existing themes
Select any theme you like while browsing, and then use the interactive color wheel, color mixing tools, or color rules to modify the theme colors.
Base Color
Create color themes around a Base Color and the color rules you apply to it. Adjust a theme by changing the Base Color or dragging and dropping the swatches.
Interactive color wheel
Move the markers on the interactive color wheel to choose the colors in your theme by either using a color rule or individually selecting colors.
Color rules
Use Kuler color rules — Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Compound, and Shades — that are based on color theory. Select a Base Color and a color rule to quickly create harmonious themes, or use the Custom rule to select colors individually.
Extracting themes from images
Upload images from your desktop or use images from Flickr™ to extract color themes using the unique color extraction Moods. Choose from Colorful, Bright, Muted, Deep, Dark, and Custom. Move the markers to customize the colors of your theme.
Theme tags
Add descriptive keywords, or tags, to your themes to make them more searchable by Kuler members. Tags are displayed in a text size that reflects their relative popularity; the larger the size, the more popular the tag word (requires an Adobe ID).
Theme comments
Add comments to tell the Kuler community about your themes and to provide feedback on other members' themes. Comments are displayed next to the creator's avatar or personal color swatch. Double-click on an avatar to view all the themes created by that member (requires an Adobe ID).
Rating themes
Rate other members' themes using the five-star rating system, and view the aggregated ratings of all Kuler members.
Avatars
Select your avatar, the theme associated with your member name, from your created themes. You can change your default avatar in Mykuler.
Mykuler
Store, view, and retrieve all your saved themes in your personal Mykuler space. While browsing or searching themes, save themes you like as Favorites (requires an Adobe ID).
Community inspiration
Get inspired. Check out the latest member spotlights in the Community section and see how other members use Kuler in their work.
Online resources
Visit the Links section to access Kuler help, the Kuler talk forum, downloads for the Kuler desktop, information on color theory, links to interesting and often quirky color-related sites, and more.
Kuler panels in Creative Suite 5 software
Get fast access to Kuler right where you work with new Kuler panels. Search, browse, and create themes, and then add them to your application's Swatches panel with one click. Find Kuler panels in Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5.5, Adobe Fireworks® CS5, and Adobe Flash® CS5.5 Professional software by choosing Window > Extensions > Kuler.
Flickr images
Explore interesting themes using Flickr™ images. Click the Flickr button to easily browse images to upload.Use the menu to browse images by most interesting or time of posting. Sign in to your Flickr account to browse images of your own or by your Flickr contacts.
Controlling brightness
Use the Brightness slider to control the brightness of your theme colors globally. The Custom rule enables you to adjust each color's brightness, increasing or decreasing the amount of black in the colors individually.
Color sliders
Adjust the colors in your theme using the color sliders under each color swatch; color models include HSB, RGB, CMYK, LAB, and HEX. Copy and paste HEX values into other applications.
Numeric values
Adjust the colors in your theme by inputting numeric values for the HSB, RGB, CMYK, LAB, or HEX color models. Entering a new value will adjust all the colors in the theme unless Custom theme is selected.
Saving themes in Mykuler
Name and save themes to your Mykuler space. Choose to keep your themes private or share them with other members, who can rate them, add comments, or download them (requires an Adobe ID).
RSS feeds
Subscribe to RSS feeds of Kuler themes by clicking the RSS icons next to Newest, Most Popular, Highest Rated, or Random in the Themes window. RSS feeds can also be received using the Kuler desktop, which also allows custom RSS feeds (for example, a tag word or creator).
Kuler desktop
Get access to RSS feeds of Kuler themes, theme searching, and theme drag-and-drop functionality with the Kuler desktop, built on the Adobe AIR™ runtime. Download themes directly into the Swatches panel of Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign and save as ASE format. The Kuler desktop requires Adobe AIR.
Kuler APIs
Develop an application that incorporates Kuler colors. Kuler APIs include RSS feeds of the Newest, Most Popular, Highest Rated, and Random themes, as well as Search. For more information on the Kuler APIs, as well as guidelines for usage and application naming, see the Developer Connection. Check out the Kuler samples page in the Developer Connection to see applications people have created using the Kuler APIs. Mashups include panels for Adobe Dreamweaver®, Flash, and Fireworks, as well as generative art programs, screen savers, and more.
