Multicolr: Searching Photos By Color

Ever wonder what would happen if you took 3 million of Flickr’s most interesting photos and searched them by color? Idee Labs has, and has made the tool free and fun.

Multicolr is one of Idee Labs’ visual search tools that allows users to search photographs by color. For designers, photographers, and decorators this an excellent way to sample colors in a variety of backgrounds, and for everyone else it’s a great way to enjoy color.

The first thing to do to enjoy Multicolr is to select which image set you would like to use. The Flickr set, which will connect you to 3 million images, is the default. The Alamy set is accessible through a link at the bottom, and will connect you to Alamy’s extensive (over 13 million photos) stock photo collection. If you are a designer or photographer with a budget, Multicolr can guide you to images of the colors you want. The interface is the same on both, so let’s run through it with Flickr, which we also talked about in our portfolio manager series.

On the right is a grid of colors - 120 of them - click on the color you would like to see on the photo, and the grid of grey on the left will fill up. In a moment the empty grid has been replaced with thumbnails of photos, each with a strong element of whatever color we have chosen. If we select another, the grid refreshes to show it, and we have two prominant colors in the photographs. If we want to have a range of colors but one more dominant, we can click the color twice and the search will look for more of that color. We can select up to ten colors, and if we want to take a closer look at the photo, we just click on it and Flickr opens opens up. If we are using the Alamy set, Alamy opens up and there are options to buy.

Whether you are using Multicolr professionally or for yourself, Idee Labs has made a visual search for color that puts you in control of the image. To find this application or similar, there is the Listio search colors.

New to Listio? Our tag cloud search offers an easy way to narrow your hunt for the perfect web application or service. No more second guessing of search terms. Just click on one tag, then as many more as you'd like to narrow your search results. It's easy and ensures you get to the listing you want. Finding web 2.0 was never so easy.

Tags: Color, colors, photos, search
Posted in: Color | Respond
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