Participant

Question

Why did Adobe Color change?

Forum|Forum|22 days ago
May 9, 2026
19 replies
567 views

Reposting this from my CC Desktop feature request. Please vote if you feel the same!

In the past few days, Adobe Color (formerly Kuler) at color.adobe.com has disappeared and been replaced with something that lacks the flexibility and usefulness of the previous interface. I’m hereby begging you to bring the previous interface back, in its entirety.

I’ve been a paying subscriber to Adobe CC and an instructor of Adobe CC apps for many years, and while I haven’t been happy with the recent price increases, my overall satisfaction with the service and the useful generative AI features in Photoshop have been enough to offset the pain of paying more every month. However, Adobe Color was one of the most useful creative tools of its kind available anywhere, and the fact that it integrated with all my apps was a huge bonus. Why on earth would I want to be forced into Adobe Express while I’m trying to fine-tune and experiment with a complex color scheme? I’m really struggling to understand the purpose of this downgrade.

There are many other users with similar sentiments: https://www.reddit.com/r/Adobe/comments/1t5heav/adobe_color_redesign/

Please bring back Adobe Color, now! This change is killing my productivity.

B

BMI-ERIK

Participant

The old color tool was one that I used CONSTANTLY in my workflow. The new one is a bad replacement. PLEASE MAKE THE OLD VERSION AVAILABLE AGAIN!

mariah_expresso

Community Manager

Hi there, we’d love to learn more about your thoughts here. Reaching out via message!

Tenebrous Nox

Participant

I think that the removal of the picker just made this useless to me…

Light can only shine if there's darkness.

mariah_expresso

Community Manager

Hi there, the color picker can be found by clicking on the HEX value. Currently, HEX, RGB, HSB, and Lab color spaces are available there.

Tenebrous Nox

Participant

Hi, thank you for the reply. I will reply in public so that more people can add in their comments on this as well.
The previous color picker allowed me to pick any color on the screen and not just the color box.
I would pick/sample the color on the image I was working on in lightroom.
Another good thing would be an “main” option to set the color codes for all the colours we have in the palette. For example, I work mostly with HSB. Every time I need to see the HSB information I have to click on the color code that by default is HEX and always falls back to HEX (don’t assume everyone is doing web design :P).
Having an option to set the default format and also to change the palette codes matching that would be great.
I can’t remember any other topics but I’m pretty sure other people already shared theirs.
Thanks again.

Light can only shine if there's darkness.

INSILC

Participant

My favorite feature was how when you clicked on a swatch from a set theme, the hex code automatically copied to the clipboard. Now you have to click on the swatch which opens a panel and then you have to drag and highlight the hex code manually. This sucks!

mariah_expresso

Community Manager

Hi! Thanks for reaching out. The copy button is on the bottom right of each swatch.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else!

derekwatson

Community Expert

Bring back previous UI, the new version is frustrating to use

Derek Watson

C

csidedesign

Participant

I understand a simplified version is needed for non professionals, but why oh why would you also remove Adobe Colour? Hang on, oh I get it… are you going to make us pay for that too? It’s the only reason I can think you would purposefully remove it and replace with what you have. Come on Adobe, do better.

C

caralynk31204663

Participant

OH my! I Completely agree. I opened this today for shades of sky blue to use in a background and was floored. It was amazing. And they BROKE it! I have used color.adobe every time I needed color inspiration. Except to day… Much to my surpise I got a kindergarten swatch book. I thought I was on the wrong website. I NEVER use Espress because I have design skills. And now I can no longer search fore trending or specific color themes. Seeing the image the colors were exctracted from was so very helpful. Why on earth would they destroy this tool? Sigh… I guess they make more money on the Free Express site for non-pro designers than the paid Created Clound subscribers. No wonder every one is fleeing. I *finally* get that. What a stab in the back. I’m at a loss… BRING BACK OUR ADOBE COLOR!!!!

MichelleTheMortal

Participant

Oh my days. I feel the exact same way! I was able to find color inspo easily using their Explore option. What were they thinking :(

AlanGilbertson

Community Expert

I have to say, if someone wanted to make the contrast checker as inscrutable and difficult to use as possible, they definitely succeeded. There is no discoverable way to check contrast on a layout, so the title “Color contrast checker” is more gaslight than tool.

No downloadable swatches file is bizarre. It would be great to know whom the developers had in mind as users, because it wasn’t professional designers. For sure, no one I know was consulted.

This new iteration seems to have had no user testing at all prior to launch: a rookie mistake unworthy of a company that makes tools for professionals. “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug should be required reading for the entire team, with an exam at the end and a year of wearing woolen mittens while working as the penalty for flunking..

INSILC

Participant

This is an incredibly important tool, I’m so frustrated they had to mess around with it.

carlosgarro

Community Expert

In my opinion, it's a terrible change that undermines an established workflow. In their eagerness to force Adobe Express in at all costs, they're destroying foundations that have worked well and don't hinder the new.

It appears that this decision was not made with input from expert users. We already faced a setback when you ended the partnership with Pantone; please reconsider this change.

T

Tim Shill

Participant

My very quick and simple work flow of extract colors from an image and download the newly made Color .Ase file is stunted. I was building a catalog of my favorite swatches this way for years, quickly sharable .ase files for peers.
(Update: Going through CC/ “Libraries” lets me at least use the newly made pallet/theme)

At least add back the option to download the .ase file, and not just a jpeg.

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