Computational production of colour harmony. Part 1: A prototype colour harmonization tool

Abstract

Although web page and computer interface developers generally have little experience in generating effective colour schemes, colour selection appears rarely in user interface design literature, and there are few tools available to assist in appropriate choice of colours. This article describes an algorithmic technique for applying colour harmony rules to the selection of colour schemes for computer interfaces and web pages. Our software implementation of this approachwhich we term the Colour Harmoniser-adapts and extends classical colour harmony rules for graphical user interfaces, combining algorithmic techniques and personal taste. A companion article presents the experimental evaluation of the system presented here. Our technique applies a set of rules for colour harmony to specific features of the interface or web page to create abstract colour schemes; the user then modifies the overall colour cast, saturation, and light-dark distribution, producing colourings that are both harmonious and usable. We demonstrate experimentally that the software is relatively simple to use and produces colourings that are well-received by humans. In this article, we define a fitness function that numerically evaluates the colour harmony of a user interface and underpins a genetic algorithm for creating harmonious schemes. We show how abstract, hue-independent, colour schemes may be mapped to real colour schemes, leaving the abstract colour harmony unchanged, but accommodating the developer's personal preferences for overall colouring, light-dark contrast, and saturation. This abstract/concrete separation automates the creation of harmonious schemes and allows unskilled developers to express their aesthetic preferences using simple direct manipulation controls.

Perceptually‐based Color Assignment

“…The final rendering is then obtained by adding details back on the scene. Figure 8 shows our test results on web page colorization, which is a common application in the realm of color assignment [MLM13]. Web designers typically use three to five major colors in their design.…”

“…We look for a more general coloring scheme that provides a host of control parameters to incorporate user's intent. Moretti et al [MLM13, MML13] introduced a software tool called “Colour Harmonizer” that takes user's color selection from which to generate color schemes for target templates. Its main focus however is on a rather specific template type such as webpages.…”

A User‐Oriented Method for Preferential Color Scheme Generation

“…Moretti et al issued a method, by which users can be involved in designing color scheme, that satisfies their requirements and is also harmonious. 34,35 The technique applies a set of rules of color harmony to specific features of the interface or web page to create abstract color schemes. Users can take part in the process by modifying the color relations according to their own preferences.…”

Computational production of colour harmony. Part 2: Experimental evaluation of a tool for gui colour scheme creation

“…In the preceding article, we have presented a set of criteria that a colour harmonization tool should fulfill, and described the implementation of a prototype for such a tool. The implementation established that it is in fact feasible to construct a practical tool that conforms to those criteria, the prototype that we call the Colour Harmoniser.…”

“…These experiments suggest that the tool functions somewhat more effectively than we originally anticipated, producing colour schemes that were rated more highly on several quality scales than those produced by random choice, by humans who self-classify as nonartists, and by humans who self-classify as artists. INTRODUCTION In the preceding article, 1 we have presented a set of criteria that a colour harmonization tool should fulfill, and described the implementation of a prototype for such a tool. The implementation established that it is in fact feasible to construct a practical tool that conforms to those criteria, the prototype that we call the Colour Harmoniser.…”