Refuse to compromise: How to mix two colors to get the perfect shade for your blog or site

First off, apologies for the radio silence last week. I was in St. Lucia on my honeymoon, and I got too caught up with last-minute trip preparations to write and schedule a Backpacker post for while I was away. Oops!

In any case, I’m back in action – and today’s post is inspired by the beautiful colors I saw while I was away. I was super excited when I found out that Ladera, the (completely amazing) resort we were staying at, offered a tour of the gardens to guests. I met up with Ray, the extremely knowledgeable gardener, and he took me around, patiently explaining all the plant life to me (the photos above are two of the pictures I snapped during my tour).

It was one of the highlights of the vacation. He even told me how he always introduces new plants on the night of the full moon, because the trees, flowers and shrubs just seem to “take” better. Super cool stuff.

But I digress. Let’s talk your website – and colors.

You know when you can picture a super-specific shade of yellow, or blue, or purple in your head, and you’ve got two images or examples that are ALMOST it – but you can’t seem to find one that’s bang-on? If you’ve got two graphics that are close-but-not-quite, and you’ve ever thought to yourself, “If I could just smush these two colors together, the color be JUST RIGHT”, then you’re in luck.

Yup – you can magically combine any two shades (like I’ve done above, with my flower pics) using this awesome tool from Colortools.net!

All you have to do is stick the hex codes for the two colors in question in the first two boxes (If you don’t know how to figure out their hex codes, read this Backpacker post about how to grab them), hit the “combine” button, and you’re in business.

You’ll be presented with two hex codes on the right side of the screen – one called “combined” and one called “web-safe”.

The “combined” color is the one that’s a perfect blend of the two hues you asked the tool to mix.

The “web-safe” color is the closest approximation to that blended hue that you can use on a blog or site when you want to know with 100% certainty that it will look exactly the same on everyone’s computer.

Once you’ve got the hex code for the exact hue of your dreams, you can email it to your graphic designer, or you can use it to make DIY graphics in Pixlr (which is free), or in Photoshop or Illustrator (which you can now access for $50 a month thanks to Adobe’s new subscription plan).

So there you have it, folks! Never compromise on color again! And go to St. Lucia if you have the chance! It’s an absolute paradise!

Ok…and now for the part you’ve all been waiting for: who won a free spot in our Jetsetter course for the month of July?

Drumroll, please…our lucky winner is Julia Guthrie! Julia, please drop us an email to arrange to get access to the course. And welcome aboard!

Want a shot at being our winner for August? All you have to do is post your feedback about today’s Backpacker tutorial on the GG2WD Facebook page. We pick one winner at random every month!