Color Stream: a Free iPhone App For Web Designers
Today we are glad to release Color Stream, a free iPhone App, created by Sahil Lavingia (@slavingia on Twitter) and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Color stream lets you create and store color palettes that are either created from scratch or generated from a photo, or even generated automatically using a built-in color schemer. The color schemer supports analogous, monochromatic, triadic and further color schemes. As usual, this iPhone app is released for free.
The tool automatically generates a combination of colors from a picture either selected from your device’s photo library or from your device’s camera (if it has one). You can save multiple color palettes, name them and rate them for quick and easy access. You can also save any one of your palettes to your photo library (and have the option to make it your wallpaper), send it via e-mail (with included hexcodes and sample html) as well as browse Flickr for appropriate color-related pictures. So if you want to use it as a color scheme generator, you don’t even need to be online!
Download the iPhone app for free!
- download the iPhone app from App Store (for free) (the app is currently unavailable)
Screenshots
Motivation behind the design
Here are some insights from the developer:
Color Stream was built to fill a gap in my life; on transit from one place to the next there was no tool to continue my design workflow. This app allowed me to constantly be working on my designs no matter where I was, without excuse. And in the past months, it’s helped thousands of other designers with their own lives and clients.
Being focused at designers, I knew the app had to be extremely polished and well designed. Not just pretty, but functional and fast too. I think I succeeded. The basic movement and flow of the application isn’t too far off of Apple’s default applications, but I have created my own navigational elements where I though they improved on the experience (like the custom stars to rate a palette).
I include many tips on how to customize your own iPhone apps to help new developers like I once was as part of another project I did, One Week App.
— Sahil
Thank you, Sahil. We appreciate your work and your good intentions!
vics
August 17th, 2010 1:40 pmlovely! thanks smashing :)
also, yay first ;)
Petro Martinez
August 17th, 2010 1:43 pmHey, are you guys CRAZY? How can you release such AWESOMENESS for free?! Kudos to the developer – Sahil, you’ve done a tremendous job! Hats off!
neonWired
August 18th, 2010 2:19 amYes, make apps for platforms that have more than 10% market share. Windows, Android, Symbian take your pick.
greg
August 18th, 2010 8:28 amwhaaaaaaa
Batfan
August 17th, 2010 2:08 pmVery cool
Would love an Android version
enche
August 17th, 2010 2:10 pmso
its kuler?
JC
August 17th, 2010 2:52 pmSort of. I’d like Peppermint to have such a function.
_____________
@ommunist
Carlos
August 17th, 2010 2:13 pmWhat, not made for Android? Cross platform please.
Cool stuff though.
trent
August 17th, 2010 2:28 pmI’ll say it too, DROID.
Paula Pineda
August 17th, 2010 2:46 pmHi everybody!
It seems to be great! But I want it to make my smartphone more useful and beautiful…
Does someone knows if it is compatible / supported by my LG Times?
Thank you so much!
Mike
August 17th, 2010 2:59 pmFantastic App. Surprised it’s become a free giveaway. Truly Awesome!
raj
August 17th, 2010 3:12 pmNice-looking app but a shame it has to have iOS 4 to run. Was hoping to use it on my iPod Touch
mustafa saraç
August 17th, 2010 4:03 pmOnly for ios 4.0 :(
Vincent
August 17th, 2010 4:16 pmBug Report :
1. Save a Palette
2. Open it
3. Go to the Information (i)
4. Click the compass tool to search for similar pictures
5. Click Close
The application will crash every time you press Close. I was able to reproduce it using various palettes. Using iPhone 4 with the latest iOS version. Not jailbroken.
Other than that, nice app :) Great price, great work!
Sahil
August 17th, 2010 4:19 pmThanks for the post Smashing Mag, and thanks for the comments everyone!
You can direct feedback to sahil at (my twitter handle) dot com. I read everything with an open mind!
- Thanks again all,
Sahil.
Micah Paz
August 17th, 2010 4:22 pmDownloaded it and its simply amazing thanks everyone for it, worth money.
ilyas
August 17th, 2010 8:17 pmsuperb kool things thanks alot
Georgiy
August 17th, 2010 10:05 pmWow, the application looks great. Makes me feel like porting it to android devices… Is it legal if I release it for free with attribution?
iNsAnE
August 17th, 2010 10:52 pm“…Color Stream was built to fill a gap in my life; ” I think you should get a life and not bore the world with another useless app.
Pete Morley
August 18th, 2010 12:39 amYou really can’t see a use for this? Have you actually downloaded it?
Sahil
August 18th, 2010 7:21 amReally sorry you feel this way.
Arno3o
August 17th, 2010 11:33 pmSimply useful for a webdesigner. Good job !
Pete Morley
August 18th, 2010 12:33 amThis is a really useful app Sahil. I’ll be using this a lot. Just managed to get a gorgeous mustard/brown themed pallette from taking a picture of my desk, coffee and the corner of a book.
James Reeve
August 18th, 2010 12:37 amBrilliant stuff, and for free too!
Day
August 18th, 2010 12:48 amCool app, thanks!
Craig
August 18th, 2010 12:48 amLovely! :)
Bart
August 18th, 2010 1:24 amDownloaded the app yesterday without knowing SmashingMagazine had something to do with it. Besides that, the app is very useful!
Anant
August 18th, 2010 1:27 am:( cant use it…. not made for my itouch 3.1.2….
lvdoujing
August 18th, 2010 1:29 amgood job，I love it！
Shashi
August 18th, 2010 2:32 amU Rock dude..
u r really making designers life easy..
Thanks for sharing
Sahil
August 18th, 2010 7:21 amYou rock.
stope
August 18th, 2010 2:52 amI’d love an Android version too… Always liked the idea of creating my own color palettes =)
Helge-Kristoffer Wang
August 18th, 2010 3:59 amI would download it for sure if there was an android version.
Surferklaus
August 18th, 2010 4:28 amNice App, why not for Android?
Mike Smedley
August 18th, 2010 4:33 amSounds a great app – could have done with it before splashing out on CliqCliq Colors though!!
Shane
August 18th, 2010 5:16 amFantastic stuff – thanks a lot!
Just took a picture of a dried satsuma on my PC and got quite a nice colour scheme from it ;)
Mike
August 18th, 2010 5:36 amSounds great. But iOS4 requirement means I gotta wait until I get my iPhone 4. iOS4 is too slow on 3G. :(
John Paul
August 18th, 2010 5:49 amAwesome .
creativemanner
August 18th, 2010 8:16 amI have been using “color expert” and its awesome!
Echilon
August 18th, 2010 11:40 amNo android version. :(
Chris
August 18th, 2010 12:05 pmFun app, there’s a couple things I’m sure I can use this for. One thing I noticed is that if the image seems to be of a larger size or a more complicated images ( a lot of complicated pieces, backgrounds, people, etc.) the app crashes. but overall pretty fun.
Thanks for sharing
mox
August 18th, 2010 8:15 pmSuper sexy. I would have paid for this. Nice work. Very nice :)
Jane
August 19th, 2010 2:53 amlovely to get freebies but what about the big wide world of us who were not sucked in by the iphone!
cross platform please :-)
NS
August 19th, 2010 10:39 amPoo…only for IOS4. I’m stuck on 3.x with my 3G, so no worky for me.
slicecom
August 19th, 2010 11:39 amGreat App! Please update for the iPhone 4′s retina display though.
Jim Panse
August 19th, 2010 11:32 pm4 Android please :)
ian
August 20th, 2010 7:28 amVery impressive and actually usefull app. To many apps today get downloaded and sit only being used in a playful fashion, but this is something I see myself using daily to help analyze the beauty the world shares with us. Would love to see this on my Nexus1.
ikkez
August 20th, 2010 7:51 amI recommend the app “peppermint color express” to you. it’s also free and comes with some more features.
parind
August 23rd, 2010 1:45 amMarvelous Sahil :)
Willywagga
August 23rd, 2010 9:43 amThis is a fantastic little app, I’m thrilled with it.
Minor problem, I can’t email directly from the app interface(greyed out) and the compass is greyed out.
Any ideas what will fix this.
Michael Hoskins
August 24th, 2010 1:56 pmNo Android version, but for those of you looking for similar, this appears to be based heavily off of Adobe’s Kuler website (and AIR application). No idea if the AIR app will work with Android currently, and the website is in Flash.
GregorH
August 27th, 2010 1:14 amExcellent app!! Very usefull.
Thanks a lot Sahil for sharing this with the iworld
Roberto
September 10th, 2010 5:38 amDoesn’t work on 3.1.x, I believe it’s not that hard to make it work for an older version.
Let the developers know.
Moblly
September 10th, 2010 5:54 amNice looking app. We added Color Stream to Moblly | Gallery of beautiful mobile apps | – http://bit.ly/c7OSTK
Lowlander
September 17th, 2010 11:06 pm€2,39 isn’t exactly free is it.
Then again, if you can make some money from the app, go for it.
Sahil
October 1st, 2010 7:50 amIt was free for over a month, sorry.
ed68bogus
September 27th, 2010 6:17 amReally want it but it’s not free, £1.79.
Not a lot I know but you say it’s free….
Sahil
October 1st, 2010 7:50 amIt was free for over a month, sorry. A college student needs some way to pay his bills!
Ethan
October 27th, 2010 10:10 pmnot free anymore!