When you open ColoRotate, you're presented with what appears to be a giant spinning 3D radish. With dots on.
Developer IDEA claims the tool is based on "neurological studies of how colours are seen and processed by our eyes and brain". So basically, you plot colours on the 3D shape (the dots), the vertical dimension represents lightness and darkness, the horizontal dimension saturation, and the circumference of the radish contains all the colours of the colour wheel. This helps you visualise all the colours and their relationships to others.
A 'Precise' view lets you control hue and tint in multiple colour spaces such as RGB, CMYK or HLS. There’s also the ability to generate random schemes when you need a bit of inspiration. The fact it can connect to Photoshop to automatically change foreground/background colours and add swatches is a further boon.
As you might have gathered, ColoRotate isn't a lighthearted colour app, but once you get your head around it, it's a very powerful tool indeed.
Key info
- Price: $4.99 (£2.99)
- Works with: iPad
- Version: 1.1
- App size: 17.7MB
- Developer: IDEA
- Age rating: 4+
This review originally featured in Tap! Magazine issue 24
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