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Building data · Color Lab

Color Lab overview

Build named color palettes for a project, give colors brand roles, check their contrast, and turn them into a finish schedule.

Alpha tool. It's early and still changing: expect things to break, and keep your own copy of anything you can't lose. What alpha means

Color Lab keeps named color palettes: material and finish palettes, site-plan color keys, and brand colors. Each color can carry a brand role (primary, accent, background, surface or text), and the tool previews the roles together and checks their contrast. Fill in each color's spec, and the palette becomes a finish schedule.

The main screen #

From top to bottom:

  • The toolbar. Project ▾ and the palette's name. On the right: + Color, From a photo…, Schedule (or Swatches), New, Import, Export ▾ and Share / Snapshots.
  • The brand preview, when any color has a role: a sample card in the brand's colors with the contrast checks next to it. See Contrast checks.
  • The swatches, one card per color, in order. See Colors and brand roles. In the Schedule view, the finish schedule takes their place. See Finish schedule and export.

Start a new palette #

From a project page #

  1. Open the project and click + New.
  2. Under Color Lab, pick Blank or one of the templates:
    • ArchOverflow
    • Warm Neutrals
    • Site Plan

The tool opens on a new palette that's already saved in that project. See Projects and schemes.

From inside the tool #

The tool opens on its home page. Under Start fresh, click + Blank or one of the templates. You can also click New in the toolbar to clear the screen, or pick a template from the empty palette.

New work starts on this computer only. To file it with a project, open Project ▾ and click Push to a project….

Open existing work #

  • From the tool's home page. Click Tools in the top bar to get there. It lists the palette you were last working on and the palettes saved in your projects.
  • From Project ▾. The menu lists the palettes in your projects. Click one to open it.
  • From a file. Click Import and pick a .colors.json file. It opens as new work on this computer.

Who can see it #

A palette in a project is shared with that project's people. Viewers can open it and look, but can't change it. See People and roles. To share it with someone outside the project, use Share / Snapshots: see View-only links.

An AI assistant connected through the AI connector can read your palettes, but not change them.