As a designed I really find this kind of tools useless. Especially when I get a color scheme delivered by the client.
It's not so much about that I'm an awesome designer (although I like to entertain that view of myself), but that five blocks of solid color says very little about how the colors will be used.
One problem is that the amount of colors you use and what elements get what color will completely change the impression of the design. A block of solid orange also can't express the subtle effect of gradients. Have a look at the spoon in this photo for an example: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/tea-8.jpg
Another problem is optical illusions. The perception of colors change very much with how much of them you see. A thin text will need to be darker that a bold headline to appear equal, and one color will look different next to two others (making a solid color look like a gradient next to an actual gradient).
The tool that would be useful would be an editor that lets you pick colors for specific stereotype elements of a website, like a h1-h3 header, body text/background, blockquote, logo etc, combined with font, textsize and boldness.
It's not so much about that I'm an awesome designer (although I like to entertain that view of myself), but that five blocks of solid color says very little about how the colors will be used.
One problem is that the amount of colors you use and what elements get what color will completely change the impression of the design. A block of solid orange also can't express the subtle effect of gradients. Have a look at the spoon in this photo for an example: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/tea-8.jpg
Another problem is optical illusions. The perception of colors change very much with how much of them you see. A thin text will need to be darker that a bold headline to appear equal, and one color will look different next to two others (making a solid color look like a gradient next to an actual gradient).
The tool that would be useful would be an editor that lets you pick colors for specific stereotype elements of a website, like a h1-h3 header, body text/background, blockquote, logo etc, combined with font, textsize and boldness.