The crew behind Adobe’s kuler color harmony RIA has released a new version of the desktop color feed browser (screenshot). You can check it out by installing Adobe AIR, then downloading the app. New features include:
- Browse color themes from the kuler website while offline (up to 100 themes cached per feed)
- Drag and drop themes onto your own desktop as transparent "tear offs," which can be scaled and viewed over any application
- Access themes from Mykuler (must be signed in)
- Download themes as ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files directly from the kuler desktop (must be signed in)
- Browse the new RSS feed "Random"
Here’s the full feature list (PDF) in case you want all the details. [Via Sami Iwata]
Completely tangential but involving colors: Art Lebedev’s Optimus Tactus keyboard concept. [Via Scott Valentine]
Nice job on kuler. Some stuff: she throws off a lot of server errors when trying to connect to her mamaship. The .ase’s open by default into PSCS3 but PS says “I don’t know what this is”.
[We’ll investigate; thanks for the heads-up. –J.]
I don’t get AIR. I thought we were moving to a time when everything (including Photoshop (!)) was going to be online. Now I can download Adobe Air and access my stuff offline?
[The plan has never been to put Photoshop (the desktop flagship app, now on version CS3) online. The plan is to build Photoshop Express, a hosted image editor, and broadens the reach and accessibility of Adobe imaging technology. –J.]
I’m online 100% of the time, the same as most people. Am I missing something with Air, or did Air miss some boat – from about 9 years ago?
[Do you ever work on a plane or train, or from a spot where you don’t have WiFi access? I do, and I don’t like losing access to apps. –J.]
I’ve used Kuler off and on for a while, but I have to say I’m unimpressed.
One time I even called in to Adobe Support because after loading a color pallet into Photoshop, it rendered my colors menu inoperable. The technician had no idea what Kuler was, and kept insisting that it was 3rd party product. Then he wanted me to pay $30 dollars to help me fix it. I declined, and he hinted to me that “It has to do with the preferences.” I figured out how to fix it from there… but it was just a bad experience all around.
Until Adobe can figure out how I to not give me the Kuler Klash! Refresh the page errors, or how to save colors into my favorites online (other than dragging them down to the bar), then I will stick with ColourLovers.com.
From the kuler team, thanks for the feedback. To view ASE files in CS2/CS3, please see here.
— Sami
The “view ASE files” link Sami posted gives a 404. Could he check it out and post an update?
Besides – even if most of us are online all the time, that doesn’t mean we are all happy to trust remote servers with our aplications and our data. There are plenty of excellent reasons *not* to use online apps, and so it is better that we have a choice to suit our needs.
Oh – and take a look at the eBay AIR app to see what desktop/web hybrid apps can do for us.
I am getting an error message in installing the Kuler Desktop. Adobe AIR installed just fine but the Kuler Destop installer just keeps telling me to try again or contact the author
Hello Question on the Adobe Air Installer – the red x gets fixed with the certifcate
this one for example news Dog is certificated but it still has a red X next to system access. How does one fix that?
I think thats fairly off putting?