I ran across this software several months ago while looking for some other graphics software for Linux. Initially, I wasn't too interested in it....but I still installed it anyways figuring I would have time to look at it more. Then, I remembered that I do web hosting and designs, so maybe I need to take a closer look at this software.

Basically, agave is a color compliment selector. It could be used any time you are trying to get complimentary colors, whether it be web site designs, painting a room or house, painting a motorcycle, putting together anything that deals with more than one color. If you have ever painted or designed a web site and later realized that the colors clashed....you will definitely benefit from using this software.

Here is a screenshot of the program before I get into installation and usage:

From the web site:

Have you ever been re-finishing a room in your home and found yourself asking "What color would go well with this"? Or been working on a new website and not been able to find colors that go well with eachother?

Try Agave. Agave is a very simple application for the GNOME desktop that allows you to generate a variety of colorschemes from a single starting color. It is free software licensed under the open-source GPL License.

Features

• Generate 6 different types of color schemes: Complements, Split Complements, Triads, Tetrads, Analogous, and Monochromatic
• Select a color that's displayed anywhere on the screen ("dropper" tool)
• Easily change the lightness or saturation of a colorscheme with a toolbar button
• Copy the hexstring (e.g. "#336699") of a color to the clipboard for use in CSS and HTML files
• Save your favorite colors to a 'Favorites' list for easy reference and export your favorites as a Gimp Palette file
• Navigate back and forward through history of previously selected colors
• Choose colors from a palette of pre-defined "web-safe" colors (more palettes to come soon)
• Drag and Drop between Agave and the Gimp, as well as many other programs
• Generate a random colorscheme if you're stuck and need some inspiration.
• User interface translated into English, Dutch (nl), German (de), Spanish (es_ES), Brazilian Portugese (pt_BR), Russian (ru), Czech (cs), and Bulgarian (bg).

Installation

I went looking for this in gentoo, but there was an older ebuild. I submitted a new one here. Agave is also available in source code, and probably available for the package management system that your distribution uses (rpm, apt, deb, etc). However, installation from source should also be quite painless if you already have gnome desktop (even if you don't use gnome). Use the package management system for your linux distribution to install, or download the source code and compile yourself using the 3-step process:

Usage

This is pretty simple. Just run the agave binary file, or select it from the gnome menu if you are running gnome.

Here is an image I will use for reference:

The, for lack of a better word, burnt orange color #dc3619 next to the Tetrads drop down list is where you click to select your base color. After you have your base color selected, then the drop down list has several different compliments you can chose.

Before I go any further, first we have to define color theory to begin with.

Color theory explains harmonious relationships between colors. The color wheel is a tool that helps us visualize these relationships. By using three colors adjacent to each other, colors on opposite sides of the color wheel, three colors equally spaced around the color wheel, or two pairs of colors opposite each other, harmonious color relationships are produced. In addition to showing relationships, the color wheel is used to show warm colors (red, yellow, orange) and cool colors (purple, blue, and green).

They types of harmonious relationships offered in agave are:

• Complements: will give you a single complementary color at the top. The base color and the complementary color will both contain the web color code, such as #dc3619, along with the rgb and hsv/hsb color formulas for using this color in image editing or video editing software. The complementary scheme is made of two colors opposite each other on the color wheel. This combination gives high-contrast, by using a warm color with a cool color.
  
• split complements will give you three different images. The split complementary scheme, a variation of the complementary, uses three colors. It uses a color, plus the colors that are on either side of the original color's complement. With this scheme you get an emphasis color, and two other colors, which contrast and complement it.
• triads will give you 3 colors. Triads are any three colors equal distance from each other on the color wheel. This scheme produces a vibrant, balanced work by using warm and cool colors.
• Tetrads will give you four colors. The tetrad color scheme uses two pairs of complementary colors. It is the hardest scheme to use, since it requires balancing all four colors
• analogous will give you three colors. The analogous scheme is composed of three "neighbor" colors, positioned next to each on the color wheel. One color dominates, while the other two enrich the composition.
• monochromatic will give you three colors. The monochromatic scheme uses one color with black or white added to produce a range of values. This scheme is elegant and easy on the eyes.

The lower half of the agave program allows you to select various pre-defined color schemes or palettes. Here is a screen shot of the lower half of the program for reference:

The included palettes are:

• GNOME icon palette - colors common to the gnome desktop (shown above)
• Visibone (web-safe colors)
• Tango Icon Theme
• Web-safe colors
  

Selecting a palette allows you to chose colors within the color palette as the base color. Then the base color is updated and the complements created for that color.

Another major feature is the ability to save your complements to a favorites color list. This really comes in handy when you have created some image or web site and then forgotten the color. The way you save the complements is by using the + button next to the palette. Image show for reference below:

Clicking on the plus sign adds the color to your favorite colors. Clicking on the - sign removes the selected favorite color. Clicking on the broom icon removes all colors from your favorite color list. When you add a color, it will be added to the right side of agave, as shown in the following image:

The Menu

The file menu also has some features. Clicking on File, you have the ability to export your favorites into a ascii text file. I exported the image shown above and it created a text file with this information:

$ cat test-export
GIMP Palette
Name: Favorite Colors, exported 2008/1/24
Columns: 0
204 51 0 #cc3300

The Edit menu has the ability to sharpen, lighten, saturate, and desaturate the selected color. scheme.

Favorites simply gives you another way to add, remove, remove all favorite colors.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and found it educational. If you would like make a donation to the Maysville Linux Users Group and help us pay for our web hosting bills, you can always send a paypal donation through the EdWiget.name web site. Click on the donations image.