Having a good color palette for your web site makes it a lot easier to read. You don’t have to go overboard like a lot of people do, but you should create an environment that enhances the ability of your visitors to take in what you have to say. Content is still key, but your design should make your content more enjoyable rather than distract from it.

There are a handful of really nice tools out there to help you select a complimentary color palette for your site. Talking up the paint mixer at your local hardware store is a great idea, but here’s one that’s open all hours.

I have no idea who Big Huge Labs is, but their Palette Generator is great. You can tell it what image you want to analyze by uploading it, entering the image’s URL, or linking to your Flickr or Photobucket account. It then gives you a bunch of colors – complete with the hexadecimal codes for use on your web site – that compliment the colors used in the picture.

Brilliant stuff! I guess you could use it for picking colors to paint a room in your home, but I’m hopeless with painting. Enjoy!