I saw some discussions earlier today surrounding http://flatuicolors.com/ and http://www.flatuicolorpicker.com/. This got me thinking about my color choices and I wanted to get some opinions.<p>I use several of the colors listed on Flat UI: alizarin, nephritis, and sun flower. I often need a lighter/darker variant of the colors. To do this, I apply LESS' "lighten" and "darken." My colors end up looking like:<p><pre><code> @baseBlue: rgb(78,166,234);
@lightBaseBlue: lighten(@baseBlue, 30%);
@darkBaseBlue: darken(@baseBlue, 10%);
// http://flatuicolors.com/
@nephritis: rgb(39,174,96);
@lightNephritis: lighten(@nephritis, 30%);
@alizarin: rgb(231,76,60);
@lightAlizarin: lighten(@alizarin, 30%);
@darkAlizarin: darken(@alizarin, 10%);
@sunFlower: rgb(241, 196, 15);
</code></pre>
Is there any psychological benefit associated with lightening/darkening each color by consistent percentages? Sometimes I feel like a color looks 'off' when lightened. For instance, lightNephritis feels like it has a bit too much blue in it, but I'm happy with nephritis. However, I also feel weird about just choosing a new 'lightGreen' color instead of lightening my base color.<p>Thoughts?