WPCandy

A few weeks ago I posted a list of 30 improvements I’d like to see in WordPress 2.6. Item number one? Customizable color schemes - possibly with COLOURlovers integration. Two weeks later, I’ve found a plugin that hits the nail on the head. The Admin CSS Designer Tool is an amazing new plugin that introduces the ability to change your site’s admin colors with built-in COLOURlovers functionality. Looking at the video demo on Ozh’s blog, it looks like a pretty functional plugin. Here’s what we think.

At first glance, the Admin CSS Designer Tool is an awesome plugin. Installation is quick and simple with hardly any customization needed. Each user can choose his or her own color scheme on their edit profile page.

Packaged with this plugin are ten pre-defined palettes from ColourLovers.com. You can instantly preview what the admin will look like with the new color scheme or delete ugly ones off the list.

The best part about this plugin is its custom color scheme feature. After selecting the ‘Random CSS’ option and saving your settings, you’re presented with a little pop-up window with the current color scheme. From here you can drag and drop the palette’s colors to reorder them. If you don’t like a particular set you can load a new one. Individual swatches can also be manually replaced with a color picker or hexadecimal value. All of this snazzy re-decorating is done with the help of COLOURlover’s new developer API. If you find a combination of colors you like, you can save the palette as a CSS stylesheet for later or current use.

Overall, it’s a pretty impressive plugin. It’s extremely simple to use and has plenty of features to suit most users.

Pros:
-Easy Installation, no configuration required
-Feature-rich
-COLOURlovers integration
-Ability to create your own color sets
-Drag-and-drop swatch reordering
-Lets you save a particular palette as a stylesheet for later use

Cons:
-Hard to find good color combinations, better off creating your own
-Unable to set colors for specific areas of the admin (eg. links, header background)

Ozh’s Admin CSS Designer Tool is a free download available from his blog.