Color Index: Over 1100 Color Combinations, CMYK and RGB Formulas, for Print and Web Media

I purchased this little vinyl-covered book at my favorite artists supply store about a year ago and have never regretted it for a moment. As a jewelry designer I find it inspiring for helping me get over a color-scheme block when I need another tone or "voice" in a piece; I've used it when deciding what colors would work well together in a recent bathroom remodeling job; I've given copies of it to friends who make clothing, purses and pottery. I've carried it with me to wholesale bead shows and used it to check for interesting color combos on the spot. Its division into color themes .. each with two, three and four-color formulas makes it easy to find something to match a general "feeling" or look .. intense, cool, muted, Urban Chic, rich, neutral, earthtone, etc. Each color formula is then presented in a design, for a visual that gives you a quick idea of what the scheme looks like in use. There are many additional advantages to this little book; not being a graphic designer, I can't speak to the "potential for error" the author mentions, but it feels like a minor issue compared to all the positive things this book has to offer.

I am a small publisher (currently VERY small, i.e. a one and a half person outfit), so I do most publishing tasks myself. Even though I have a good graphic designer, I like to come up with the design and color schemes myself, and let him play around with them to get the best results.Actually, before I worked with him, I had first one absolutely awful designer, and then another mediocre one. The first one designed my first book cover based on my design specs, which was OK, but she chose the colors, and I went along with her, not knowing any better. The results were pretty bad - the cover was way too dark, and some of the writing actually got lost in it because it was so dark.That's when I switched over to my second designer, and picked up this gem of a book at the same time. I personally chose the color combos for the second and third books based on the combinations given in the book. Now, the design was basically the same for the first, second, and third covers because they were all part of the same set, but the colors make all the difference. I actually have buyers telling me how attractive the colors on the second and third books are, which is pretty amazing considering that they are just students' workbooks and cover design is usually not considered very important by my audience. I have since used this book for two more covers in the series with excellent results.In short, if you are looking for inspiration for truly super color combinations, and want to see how the colors will actually look in print before the printing takes place, I highly recommend this book!

This is the second copy of this book I have purchased. The first book I had torn out all of the pages of the color wheels and lost some of them. These color wheel depictions are worth buying this book. This book was bought used, and lived up to what the book reseller advertised it as.

I just received _Color Index_ in the mail yesterday and really enjoyed browsing through all the color combinations. There is a lot of information packed into such a small book. My only complaint about the book is that the author doesn't give hexadecimal numbers for any of the colors except the ones in the Web-safe palette. For those of us who sometimes choose to use nonWeb-safe colors for Web design, adding the hexadecimal values for all colors would have been useful.

I love the "Color Index" by Jim Krause. It is a wonderful resource for those times when you feel you've used up all your ideas about color combinations. Originally written for graphic artists, it can certainly be used by crafters. I especially like the chapter headings (Quiet colors, Active colors, Rich colors)and use the schematics to match my papers and yarns, and to find other combos I wouldn't have dreamed of using. Highly recommended.

This is the third copy of this book I have purchased. It helps me out a lot choosing color combinations. People keep freaking stealing it.

This book is great for people who get stuck in a rut of using the same color schemes time after time. Really made me think outside the box and want to try harder to use different color schemes. Provides CMYK versions of all his color palettes and has many to choose from. Great book to keep next to your computer for when you get stuck about color ideas.

This book is fun and inspiring to look at. The cmyk and rgb formulas make this easy to integrate into print or web designs.