Is there a nice color scheme generator for beamer(poster)?

Question

There are plenty of palette generators for the web, e.g., Color Scheme Designer . Among other stuff it can export schemes in XML. Is there a nice XSLT to convert it into STY file that I'd use with beamerposter? The caveat here is also that that generator uses RGB and not CMYK model.

I understand I can manually code all the stuff as I want like

\setbeamercolor*{normal text}{fg=tachameleon, bg=ta3gray}

Or are there other easy ways to create pleasantly looking themes?

I have a feeling that most of the themes are crafted by hands? Am I wrong?

Answer 1

My university (UCL) has a style guide and guidelines for the colours that should be used in all publications (i.e. a corporate identity). I found this to be a good place to start in selecting colours for a student poster. Style guides will (hopefully) have been designed by graphic designers who should know which combinations of colours work!

I created a colour palette (which I've included below), and then referred to this using \setbeamercolour commands in a .sty file.

% Defines the palette for use with LaTeX according to the UCL Style Guide

% white 
\definecolor{uclwhite}{rgb}{1, 1, 1}

%   UCL style guide colours.
%   Number refer to level of tint.
%   100%    1
%    70%    2
%    50%    3
%    20%    4

 % UCL style guide dk purple
\definecolor{ucl1dkpurple}{RGB}{82,66,91}
\definecolor{ucl2dkpurple}{RGB}{134,122,140}
\definecolor{ucl3dkpurple}{RGB}{168,160,173}
\definecolor{ucl4dkpurple}{RGB}{220,217,222}

 % UCL style guide dk red
\definecolor{ucl1dkred}{RGB}{90,27,49}
\definecolor{ucl2dkred}{RGB}{139,95,110}
\definecolor{ucl3dkred}{RGB}{172,141,152}
\definecolor{ucl4dkred}{RGB}{222,209,214}

 % UCL style guide dk blue
\definecolor{ucl1dkblue}{RGB}{0,67,89}
\definecolor{ucl2dkblue}{RGB}{76,123,138}
\definecolor{ucl3dkblue}{RGB}{127,161,172}
\definecolor{ucl4dkblue}{RGB}{204,217,222}

 % UCL style guide dk green
\definecolor{ucl1dkgreen}{RGB}{75,70,32}
\definecolor{ucl2dkgreen}{RGB}{129,125,98}
\definecolor{ucl3dkgreen}{RGB}{165,162,143}
\definecolor{ucl4dkgreen}{RGB}{219,218,210}

 % UCL style guide black
\definecolor{ucl1black}{RGB}{0,0,0}
\definecolor{ucl2black}{RGB}{75,75,75}
\definecolor{ucl3black}{RGB}{128,128,128}
\definecolor{ucl4black}{RGB}{205,205,205}

 % UCL style guide pink
\definecolor{ucl1pink}{RGB}{145,24,83}
\definecolor{ucl2pink}{RGB}{178,93,134}
\definecolor{ucl3pink}{RGB}{200,139,169}
\definecolor{ucl4pink}{RGB}{233,209,221}

 % UCL style guide md red
\definecolor{ucl1mdred}{RGB}{195,58,45}
\definecolor{ucl2mdred}{RGB}{213,117,108}
\definecolor{ucl3mdred}{RGB}{225,156,150}
\definecolor{ucl4mdred}{RGB}{243,216,213}

 % UCL style guide md blue
\definecolor{ucl1mdblue}{RGB}{69,156,189}
\definecolor{ucl2mdblue}{RGB}{124,186,209}
\definecolor{ucl3mdblue}{RGB}{162,205,222}
\definecolor{ucl4mdblue}{RGB}{218,235,242}

 % UCL style guide md green
\definecolor{ucl1mdgreen}{RGB}{130,141,55}
\definecolor{ucl2mdgreen}{RGB}{167,175,115}
\definecolor{ucl3mdgreen}{RGB}{192,198,155}
\definecolor{ucl4mdgreen}{RGB}{230,232,215}

 % UCL style guide orange
\definecolor{ucl1orange}{RGB}{215,123,35}
\definecolor{ucl2orange}{RGB}{227,162,101}
\definecolor{ucl3orange}{RGB}{235,189,145}
\definecolor{ucl4orange}{RGB}{247,229,211}

  % UCL style guide lt purple
\definecolor{ucl1ltpurple}{RGB}{191,175,188}
\definecolor{ucl2ltpurple}{RGB}{210,199,208}
\definecolor{ucl3ltpurple}{RGB}{223,215,221}
\definecolor{ucl4ltpurple}{RGB}{242,239,242}

 % UCL style guide yellow
\definecolor{ucl1yellow}{RGB}{229,175,0}
\definecolor{ucl2yellow}{RGB}{237,199,76}
\definecolor{ucl3yellow}{RGB}{242,215,127}
\definecolor{ucl4yellow}{RGB}{250,239,204}

 % UCL style guide lt blue
\definecolor{ucl1ltblue}{RGB}{168,192,209}
\definecolor{ucl2ltblue}{RGB}{194,211,223}
\definecolor{ucl3ltblue}{RGB}{211,223,232}
\definecolor{ucl4ltblue}{RGB}{238,242,246}

% UCL style guide brt green
\definecolor{ucl1brtgreen}{RGB}{204,209,88}
\definecolor{ucl2brtgreen}{RGB}{219,223,138}
\definecolor{ucl3brtgreen}{RGB}{229,232,171}
\definecolor{ucl4brtgreen}{RGB}{245,246,222}

% UCL style guide stone
\definecolor{ucl1stone}{RGB}{217,214,204}
\definecolor{ucl2stone}{RGB}{228,226,219}
\definecolor{ucl3stone}{RGB}{236,234,229}
\definecolor{ucl4stone}{RGB}{255,255,255}

% UCL style guide lt green
\definecolor{ucl1ltgreen}{RGB}{185,193,147}
\definecolor{ucl2ltgreen}{RGB}{206,211,179}
\definecolor{ucl3ltgreen}{RGB}{220,224,201}
\definecolor{ucl4ltgreen}{RGB}{241,243,233}

Answer 2

Well, once put it that way I agree there is no generator as such. Here is a part of my theme file I did some time ago. I used the tangocolors style file that comes with the templates.

\setbeamercolor{headline}{fg=tabutter,bg=white}
\setbeamercolor{footline}{fg=delftdarkblue, bg=white}
\setbeamercolor{separation line}{bg=delftblue}
\setbeamercolor{title in headline}{fg=delftdarkblue}
\setbeamercolor{author in headline}{fg=black}
\setbeamercolor{institute in headline}{fg=black}
\setbeamercolor{structure}{fg=ta3skyblue}
\setbeamercolor{author in head/foot}{fg=delftdarkblue, bg=white}
\setbeamercolor*{normal text}{fg=black, bg=delftdarkblue} %% <<== The overall background color change this
\setbeamercolor*{block title}{bg=delftblue,fg=white}
\setbeamercolor*{block body}{fg=black,bg=white}

It shouldn't be difficult to write up a small script to populate this color list once you know the colors. You can even use Excel's concatenate function. But as I commented what makes a good presentation palette needs to be defined. The rest is relatively simple and maybe you can provide such a tool and make all of the colorblinds happy :).