While choosing colors lies at the heart of any design project, the color picker can prove confusing to some and limiting to others. MasterColors has responded with a plugin that adds its own proprietary color space to the features of the default picker. According to Neil Murphy, CEO of Master Colors, "Master Colors has organized the science of color harmonics in such a way that it can easily be understood and used by any artist, designer digital photographer or prepress professional." The idea is that users navigate through the HVC color space via the Hue, Value or Chroma axis, make selections and then use these colors within InDesign in the usual way.

Users can generate dynamic palettes with control over palette parameters and then pick colors directly from the palettes or export to a palette file. MasterColors claims that the structure provided by their color space lets designers work with color in a new way. For example, users can employ the classical Golden Ratio for organizing color compositions. The Smart Palettes feature ensures that choices are compatible with the printer's CMYK space, eliminating common output problems.

HVC Color Composer Professional Version can be purchased for $99.95 on the Master Colors site, with the Standard Version priced at $49.95. A demo version is also available for download.