Color friend vs 100 is a comparison of two popular color palette tools – Color Friend and Adobe Color CC. Both tools allow users to create, customize and explore color palettes for design projects. In this article, we will examine the key features and differences between Color Friend and Adobe Color CC to help you determine which tool may be better suited for your needs.
Introducing Color Friend and Adobe Color CC
First, let’s briefly introduce both tools:
Color Friend
Color Friend is a free online color palette generator created by game designer Philippe Lang. It allows users to create color palettes from scratch or browse thousands of premade palettes created by other users. Features include:
- Intuitive palette creator with color picker and hue slider
- Large collection of premade palettes to browse
- Options to sort, tag and search palettes
- Tools to extract colors from images
- Social features like favoriting and following other users
Adobe Color CC
Adobe Color CC (formerly Adobe Kuler) is a free color wheel tool provided by Adobe as part of their Creative Cloud suite. Key features include:
- Color wheel for visually exploring color harmonies
- Library of premade color themes to browse
- Ability to upload images to extract color palettes
- Social connectivity with commenting and favoriting
- Integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps
Color Selection Tools
The most fundamental part of any color tool is how users can create and customize palettes. Let’s compare the color selection tools in Color Friend and Adobe Color CC:
| Color Friend | Adobe Color CC | |
|---|---|---|
| Color picker | ✅ | ✅ |
| Color wheel | ❌ | ✅ |
| Color harmony rules | ❌ | ✅ |
| Hue slider | ✅ | ❌ |
| Image color extraction | ✅ | ✅ |
Color Friend features an intuitive palette creator with a color picker and hue slider for modifying colors. Adobe Color CC is built around a color wheel with preset color harmony rules like complementary, analagous, triadic, etc. Both tools allow extracting colors from uploaded images.
Browsing and Discovering Palettes
In addition to creating new palettes, browsing premade palettes can provide inspiration. Here is how Color Friend and Adobe Color CC compare in this regard:
| Color Friend | Adobe Color CC | |
|---|---|---|
| Library size | Over 300,000 palettes | Over 2 million themes |
| Sorting/filtering | Sort by popular, recent, random, etc. | Filter by color harmony, most used, newest, etc. |
| Search/tags | Search palettes by name and tags | Search by keyword |
| Recommendations | ✅ | ❌ |
Adobe Color CC has a significantly larger library of premade palettes to browse, but Color Friend provides more options to sort, filter and search through palettes. Color Friend also uses tags and recommends related palettes.
Social Features
The social aspects of sharing and engaging with color palettes is another area of comparison:
| Color Friend | Adobe Color CC | |
|---|---|---|
| Likes/favorites | ❤️ Favorite palettes | ❤️ Like palettes |
| Comments | ✅ Comment on palettes | ✅ Comment on themes |
| Sharing | Share palettes by link | Share themes by link |
| Profiles | ✅ User profiles showing favorites and uploads | ❌ No user profiles |
Both Color Friend and Adobe Color CC allow users to like/favorite, comment on, and share palettes by link. However, Color Friend also has user profiles where you can see favorited palettes and followers.
Platforms and Apps
Here is an overview of platforms, apps and integrations for the two tools:
| Color Friend | Adobe Color CC | |
|---|---|---|
| Web app | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile apps | iOS and Android apps | iOS only |
| Desktop apps | ❌ | Integrated into Creative Cloud desktop apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. |
| Integrations | ❌ | Integrated with various Adobe Creative Cloud tools |
Color Friend offers web, iOS and Android apps. Adobe Color CC is web-based but also accessible through Creative Cloud desktop tools. It has tighter integration with other Adobe products.
Accessibility
Making color palettes accessible to those with visual impairments is also an important consideration:
| Color Friend | Adobe Color CC | |
|---|---|---|
| Color blindness simulation | ✅ Simulate different types of color blindness | ❌ No color blindness simulator |
| Text contrast checker | ✅ Check text contrast ratios | ❌ No contrast checker |
| Accessible color ratings | ✅ Colors rated by accessibility | ❌ No accessibility ratings |
Color Friend has more built-in accessibility features like color blindness simulation, text contrast checking, and accessible color ratings. Adobe Color CC currently lacks these tools.
Additional Features
There are also some additional features to note:
| Color Friend | Adobe Color CC | |
|---|---|---|
| Gradients | ✅ Linear and radial gradient generator | ❌ No gradient tools |
| Palettes from Images | Multiple tools to extract color palettes from images | Upload single image to extract palette |
| Browser extension | ✅ Extract colors from sites | ❌ No browser extension |
Some unique features of Color Friend include gradient generation, robust image palette extraction, and a browser extension for grabbing colors from websites.
Conclusion
In summary, here are some key differences between Color Friend and Adobe Color CC:
- Color Friend offers more flexibility and options for customizing palettes, while Adobe Color CC provides color wheel-based harmonies.
- Adobe Color CC has a larger library of premade palettes to browse, but Color Friend gives you more ways to filter and search.
- Color Friend has more robust social features like user profiles.
- Adobe Color CC is integrated into Creative Cloud apps and workflows.
- Color Friend has better accessibility features and options.
- Color Friend includes some additional tools like gradients and browser extension.
For most users, Color Friend provides a richer free palette creation experience with its customizable workspace, accessibility checks, and community engagement features. However, designers who already subscribe to Creative Cloud may find deeper integration and convenience with Adobe Color CC.
The best way to decide is to try both tools hands-on. Their online interfaces make it easy to explore the features and find which color palette tool fits your personal needs and workflow best.
