Rename "core"? about colors HOT 7 CLOSED

Since all of the other tones are numbers in increment of 10, my initial incline would be to label it 0. I'm not sure that gets at what you're wanting to solve.

from colors.

0 doesn't make sense. They already exist as a power of 10 numeral.

James, I found this quite odd when examining 2.0.0, but assumed a "core" color was pulled out to represent what is now the lowest number that you can safely use in or against white. If that's not the intent, then I question what the intent is. "Because they look good together on a color wheel" doesn't seem like the right intent. Does that actually help the designers this is meant for?

from colors.

from colors.

I had a thought last night actually. What if instead of listing it as a hex, we lift it up in the object and say which tone it is. This way we have the value of it be recognized while teaching us FEDs that it is a variety of tones:

Before:

{
  name: 'ultramarine',
  synonyms: ['cool-blue'],
  values: [
    { tone: 'core', value: '#3151b7' },
    { tone: '1', value: '#e7e9f7' },
    { tone: '10', value: '#d1d7f4' },
    { tone: '20', value: '#b0bef3' },
    { tone: '30', value: '#89a2f6' },
    { tone: '40', value: '#648fff' },
    { tone: '50', value: '#3c6df0' },
    { tone: '60', value: '#3151b7' },
    { tone: '70', value: '#2e3f8f' },
    { tone: '80', value: '#252e6a' },
    { tone: '90', value: '#20214f' }
  ]
}

After:

{
  name: 'ultramarine',
  synonyms: ['cool-blue'],
  core: '60',
  values: [
    { tone: '1', value: '#e7e9f7' },
    { tone: '10', value: '#d1d7f4' },
    { tone: '20', value: '#b0bef3' },
    { tone: '30', value: '#89a2f6' },
    { tone: '40', value: '#648fff' },
    { tone: '50', value: '#3c6df0' },
    { tone: '60', value: '#3151b7' },
    { tone: '70', value: '#2e3f8f' },
    { tone: '80', value: '#252e6a' },
    { tone: '90', value: '#20214f' }
  ]
}

Does this sound good?

from colors.

That makes more systematic sense in terms of using the function. But, what's the purpose of core? What's a real use case of a visual designer using it? Is it to help them understand contrast ratio (that's what the 50s used to represent), because that would actually be helpful.

from colors.

I seem to remember it being more of a development idea. So that if they wanted to only specify "yellow" you would get the ideal yellow (yellow 20). But I think this detracts from the grade system, and is somewhat confusing.

Maybe there could be more of a system where people choose colors for their projects and assign them variables like "core" or "primary" , "background" , "warning". We do this with our color palette system for Analytics Solutions.

from colors.

@matthewcpaul I see the use case like this: I want to build a color palette based primarily around yellow. I have to consider that pure colors appear brighter than each other depending on the hue, so "yellow" inherently appears brighter than "blue." The "core" color yellow, Yellow 10, gives me a starting point that is identifiable as yellow. Yellow 50, the middle grade that works with acceptable contrast against both black and white, isn't a color that anyone would call yellow—it's more of an "olive drab." There isn't a single grade that will look "pure" across all colors. Knowing that "core" yellow is Yellow 10, I can then make decisions about what other grades I need to use in my color system to provide contrast against that yellow.

I like your suggestion @seejamescode for identifying which grade is the core color rather than specifying its exact value because it's closer to how a designer thinks about choosing colors.

If people are confused by the "core" term, "signature" is a good term for it… Maybe "basic," "simple," "foundation," or "key" would work as well.

from colors.