Color Scheme Methods

Note: Due to the limited number of flat colors currently available, color schemes may return results that reuse certain flat colors. Because of this redundancy, we have provided an option to return either a flat color scheme or a non-flat color scheme until more flat colors are added to the inventory.

The initial color can be either a non-flat color or flat color. Chameleon will return an NSArray of 5 UIColors in which the original color will be the third object of the scheme. This allows for Chameleon to designate the colors of the color scheme (2 colors counter-clockwise and 2 clockwise from the initial color), and thus, the chosen colors are aligned specifically in that order.

Analogous Color Scheme

An analogous color scheme uses three adjacent colors on the color wheel. According to Wikipedia, it’s best used with either warm or cool colors, creating a cohesive collection with certain temperature qualities as well as proper color harmony; however, this particular scheme lacks contrast and is less vibrant than complementary schemes. Within the scheme, choose one color to dominate and two to support. The remaining two colors should be used (along with black, white or gray) as accents.

Complementary Color Scheme

A complementary color scheme uses opposite colors on the color wheel. To put into slightly more technical terms, they are two colors that, when combined, produce a neutral color. Complementary colors are tricky to use extensively, but work well when you want a point of emphasis. Complementary colors are generally not favorable to use for text.

Triadic Color Scheme

A triadic scheme uses evenly spaced colors on the color wheel. The colors tend to be richly vivid and offer a higher degree of contrast while, at the same time, retain color harmony. Let one color dominate and use the two others for accent.

Getting Colors in a Color Scheme

To retrieve an array of colors, first make sure to initialize an NSMutableArray (in case you want to use the same array to replace with different colors later):

Normal Convention:

Objective-C

NSMutableArray *colorArray = [NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:[NSArray arrayOfColorsWithColorScheme:(ColorScheme)colorScheme 
                                                                                                    with:(UIColor *)color 
                                                                                             flatScheme:(BOOL)isFlatScheme]];

Swift

var colorArray = NSArray(ofColorsWithColorScheme:ColorScheme, with:UIColor!, flatScheme:Bool)

Chameleon Shorthand:

Objective-C

NSMutableArray *colorArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:ColorScheme(colorSchemeType, color, isFlatScheme)];

Swift

var colorArray = ColorSchemeOf(colorSchemeType, color, isFlatScheme)

Example:

Assuming you want to generate an analogous color scheme for the light shade of Flat Red, perform the following method call:

Normal Convention:

Objective-C

NSMutableArray *colorArray = [NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:[NSArray arrayOfColorsWithColorScheme:ColorSchemeAnalogous
                                                                                                    with:[UIColor flatRedColor] 
                                                                                             flatScheme:YES]];

Swift

var colorArray = NSArray(ofColorsWithColorScheme:ColorScheme.Analogous, with:UIColor.flatRed, flatScheme:true)

Chameleon Shorthand:

Objective-C

NSMutableArray *colorArray = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:ColorScheme(ColorSchemeAnalogous, FlatRed, YES)];

Swift

var colorArray = ColorSchemeOf(ColorScheme.Analogous, FlatRed(), true)

You can then retrieve each individual color the same way you would normally retrieve any object from an array:

Objective-C

UIColor *firstColor = colorArray[0];

Swift

var firstColor = colorArray[0] as! UIColor