Swatchsmith

Tune sliders until your swatch matches the reference. The trick is that each colour model reveals different error, switching schemes is how you close the last gap.

• Adjust the sliders for the active scheme to move your colour toward the target.
• Switch between RGB, HSL, and CMYK; each makes a different kind of mismatch obvious.
• Toggle press-check to see how the colour prints on paper, vivid colours shift most at the gamut limit.
• Submit when the gap is within tolerance; precision, speed, and using multiple schemes all boost your score.

• Desktop: drag sliders, click scheme/difficulty buttons, Press-check, and Submit match.
• Phone & tablet: drag sliders and tap buttons, touch-friendly.

• Daily and Practice seeds across Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty.

• Get close in RGB, then flip to HSL to fix hue and lightness independently.
• Switching schemes is rewarded, exploring them is both faster and worth bonus points.

Swatchsmith teaches how RGB, HSL and CMYK describe the same colour differently, and why print gamut matters.

• Skills: colour models (RGB, HSL, CMYK), colour gamut, digital colour
• Best for: teens and up (designers)
• For parents & teachers: how digital and print colour models differ.

Tuning sliders to match a reference, switching colour models to close the last gap, is why several models exist at all.

Making the switch the technique is the original insight.

RGB, HSL and the perceptual spaces describe the same colours with different coordinates, and error that is invisible in one is obvious in another. A near-match that still looks wrong is usually off in a dimension the current model does not isolate — so changing model is genuinely how professionals close it.

Swatchsmith teaches how RGB, HSL, and CMYK describe the same colour differently, and why print gamut matters. It is an original, free browser game built in-house.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.