Color Index XL: More than 1,100 New Palettes with CMYK and RGB Formulas for Designers and Artists

by Jim Krause

This updated, expanded, and oversized inspirational resource presents 1,100 color palettes, with light, bright, dark, and muted varieties for each one, making it the most expansive palette selection tool available.

Color Index XL provides aspiring designers, artists, and creative individuals working with color with an indispensable, one-stop method for reviewing and selecting current, up-to-date color palettes for their creative projects. Designer and lecturer Jim Krause's classic resource is back with a new approach that presents each group of palettes in an oversized form for easy visual review, and bleeding to the edge of the page (edge indexing) for quick access. By providing variations for each palette, Krause ensures that creatives can find the best color selection for each project's needs. This book serves as the perfect resource for teachers, students, and professionals of all kinds in the art and design space who want to stay up-to-date on the ever-evolving trends in color.

Genres: Art, Reference, Design

297 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Jim Krause has worked as a designer in the Pacific Northwest since the 1980s. He has produced award-winning work for clients large and small, including Microsoft, McDonald's, Kodak, Cingular Wireless, Washington Apples, Levi Strauss, Paccar/Kenworth, and Seattle Public Schools. Jim Krause has written over 15 books on design, creativity, and digital photography. His books are widely popular and are on sale around the world. Several have been translated into multiple languages.
Krause's latest books are Color Index XL, Lessons in Typography, Visual Design and Color For Designers.
When Jim isn't working on books, he can usually be found riding or racing either a motorcycle or a bicycle, hiking, reading, roasting coffee beans in his back yard, drinking espresso, or doing an art project of some kind or another.

Reviews

[January Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and informative. Easy to understand layout. I was really impressed with this book and will use it in my work!

[penny shima glanz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books as someone not trained in design or graphics I wonder where it's been in my life. Why? I interact with colour daily in my work both as a hand knitting designer and working with technology clients. Colour doesn't come easily to me, I profer muted monochromatic options. This helps me to break free of that mold and also provide guidance to those technology clients who really want to combine colours I find garish. I definitely appreciated the section on colour theory. While I come across these frequently, I appreciated how huge, saturation, and colour are explained and how one then moves into building colour schemes from my beloved monochromatic to others.
While I don't have experience with the prior edition, I appreciate the addition of a fifth colour, each palette includes light, bright, dark, and muted options, and the print size is physically larger. Does this title survive in our app driven world? YES! I like that the patterns are not always the same and that they are sized to show how the colours interact in pattern.
This is a title I am thankful to have discovered through requesting a review copy and I hope to include a copy on my reference bookshelf soon.

I received an eARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The FTC wants you to know.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Color Index XL is a useful tool for anyone who designs documents, websites, etc. Each palette in this book consists of five colors—which is perfect. As someone who regularly creates images for publicity purposes, I adhere to the policy that less is more. While two to three colors feels ideal, five verges on too busy. Thanks to Krause’s palettes, it’s easy to pick out the best color combination of the five depending on the mood that you want to convey. Not only does he dedicate each page to a single color palette, he also breaks that palette up into shades: bright, light, dark, and muted. In other words, just about every variety of color combination you can imagine!

Just how will that color look on the printed copy? Krause’s book reduces the amount of “guesswork” that occurs when trying to select colors on the computer by showing you the final product on paper. (And let’s not forget to mention how thankful your eyes will feel scanning through physical pages as opposed to scrutinizing a computer monitor.) Within each palette, he also supplies the RGB (red/green/blue) formula that Microsoft Publisher and Word uses. As an added bonus, the book includes a section on color theory. Highly recommended as an invaluable resource for anyone working in visual design.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.

[Melissa Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to review two new color inspiration books this month, Color Index XL by Jim Krause, and The Complete Color Harmony , Pantone Edition by Leatrice Eiseman.

"Color Index XL” is a collection of hundreds of five color palettes ranging from warm, to mixed, to cool, each with four versions ranging from bright to muted. CMYK and RGB codes are provided. There is an additional short section on color theory.

“The Complete Color Harmony, Pantone Edition” provides a more organic approach to color moods, along with a collection of two and three color palettes. Pantone codes are provided.

I’m a fiber artist, working primarily in knitting yarns, and am always looking for inspiration. Both of these books were useful working tools.

I reviewed the books in e-book form, and really enjoyed flipping through the different palettes and waiting for one of them to “sing” to me. I particularly liked the format of “Color Index” for its full page layouts. The tone of “Color Harmony” was playful and entertaining, if rather more of the book was dedicated to color marketing than I found useful.

[Nada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Color Index XL:  More than 1,100 New Palettes with CMYK and RGB Formulas for Designers and Artists by Jim Krause is clearly a tool for a designer or photographer. I have an amateur's interest in design and photography. As such, I find the ideas intriguing and the opportunity to learn invaluable. With almost 300 palettes shown, the book offers the ability to follow a formula. With imagination for substitutions and combinations added in, the inspiration is endless.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017...

Reviewed for Blogging for Books

[Purplelion · Rating 4 out of 5]

In hindsight, I wish I had bought the physical book because the Kindle version doesn't allow for bookmarking. I solved the issue by taking screenshots of the palettes that I liked.

The book is very well laid out with color palettes displayed in bright, light, dark and muted settings. Includes both CMYK and RGB formulas, which will be very helpful for my projects.

Also liked that the book was divided into three sections: Warmer Palettes, Mixed Palettes and Cooler Palettes. There's also a short section on color theory.

[Lilith Day]

Colors can be nice and tricky. You think you have a good combo, but the mood is off. This book however, takes away a lot of guesswork.

This book is basically an overview of thousands of different pallets. It is more of a reference books of colors. Not only does this book show many different colors and color combinations, but it also show how the colors look when you add changes like lighten the colors.

Just through flipping through this book I was filled with all sorts of information. Not only that I can have a sense of what colors make which moods.

I am a huge fan of this book. I can tell the author put a lot of time into gathering the colors and showing the reader how to create them. I really appreciate this.. There are so many uses for this book. It is a great design tool to have.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine and were in no way influenced by outside sources. I am a professional blogger at LittleLadyPlays