1. Adobe Kuler AIR

We’re not talking about the website, but the Adobe AIR version which sits nicely on your desktop. And just in case you didn’t know, Adobe Kuler is a software which connects to a community server to share and rate color sets. It comes in both a website version, and a standalone Adobe AIR version which you can grab here.

You can either copy individual hex values from the swatches, or send entire swatch themes to Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign. Note: to grab entire swatch themes, you’ll have to create an Adobe account then click on Download in Kuler AIR. Oh and you also need Adobe Switchboard, which creates the connection between Kuler and other apps.

CS4 already has Kuler fully integrated within its software suite, but just in case you haven’t got CS4 yet, this will work just as well for your color cravings.

2. Mondrianum

For those on a Mac, you can also access Kuler through this program called Mondrianum. It allows you to replace the Mac built-in color picker with a Kuler enhanced version. So this is like Kuler AIR, except it’s system wide integrated. Apps like iWork, iLife, Google Sketchup, Adobe Photoshop, Coda, CSSEdit and many more will all work with Mondrianum.

Instead of just stuck with color slider bars or the Ball of Rainbow Colors, you can see what kind of colors other people are using and get some inspiration that way. You may not need it every single time, but it sure helps on a creatively dry day.

3. ColorZilla for FireFox

This little tool is so useful, it’s one of the first Firefox plugins that I would install on a new computer. Just right click and you can access all its functions. It can grab any color value on a webpage, select and save palettes and even scan a site for all the colors used. It does exactly what I want it to do and it does it quickly.

There is no quicker way of coding up CSS designs than to do it with this tool. You can download Colorzilla here. And while you’re at it, get SEO for Firefox too. That’s another bread and butter tool I install for Firefox right away. It checks for 20+ types of link, NoFollows etc.

Selecting colors for a design isn’t easy, but these tools make it much easier. Use it for inspiration, and use it to know the competition. Once you get the hang of it, you can even share your amazing color combinations with the global community too. Do you have any other color tools you would like to share?