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I explored ColorThief today, a JavaScript library that extracts a dominant color and a palette from an image. One useful application is a music player whose background picks up colors from the album artwork.
In v3, palette extraction uses OKLCH by default, grouping colors by their perceived similarity. It also provides swatches such as Vibrant and Muted, plus contrast ratios against black and white.
I’d use those colors for backgrounds and decorative accents while keeping error, status and primary action colors consistent. After adjusting a background’s lightness or saturation, contrast needs checking again.
For a catalog with fixed product images, I’d save the palette during image processing rather than extract it every time someone opens a card. The goal is to let the interface adapt to its content while keeping its hierarchy and readability predictable.
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A procedural shaded-relief cartographer's table; export the map as PNG.
I built this project to test A procedural shaded-relief cartographer's table; export the map as PNG. The core engineering challenge was sustaining uncompromised 60 FPS rendering using Canvas2D while handling continuous user interaction without framework overhead.
WHAT I WAS TESTING:
I focused on two core engineering benchmarks:
Real-time topographic contour line extraction using Marching Squares
Mountain ridge carving and hydrographic river basin generation
THE TECHNICAL SIDE:
Combines domain-warped fractional brownian motion (fBm) with Marching Squares contour generation. Renders vintage parchment styled topographic maps with seeded coordinates.
Everything executes in the browser using Canvas2D, Procedural Cartography, Contour Line Marching Squares. No third-party frameworks, no heavy runtime bundles, and zero external tracking.
WHAT I LEARNED:
Contour line marching squares often generated disconnected micro-segments. Stitching adjacent line segments into continuous polyline paths allowed smooth canvas stroke rendering.
Finding the sweet spot between mathematical precision and frame budget took careful profiling, but the result runs at a steady 60 FPS even on modest hardware.
TRY IT YOURSELF:
The live build is deployed on Netlify. Open it in your browser, test the controls, and observe the render response times.
If you are building high-performance 3D, physics, or creative web systems and want to collaborate, reach out here on Contra.
Really nice map detail
Should a flower shop ever go black and white?
Same flower house, same layout. We only took the color out.
1. Full color. The iridescent petals do the selling: lilac, pink, a little shimmer. The photo is the brand, and every accent on the page borrows from it.
2. Monochrome. No color at all. Shape, texture and typography have to carry everything, and the page suddenly reads like a gallery catalogue.
Color sells the flower. Monochrome sells the exhibition.
Which one would get you through the door?
67 voted
91%
7 voted
9%
74 votes
Closed
The problem with monochrome is that, throughout computer history, it has conditioned users to associate gray and monochrome with being disabled, dysfunctional, or something to ignore and avoid.
CARTELLE: The Society for Speculative Cartography.
"High-Performance Creative Web Exploration"
Drag a procedurally inked globe of places that don't exist. An archive of maps of places that do not exist. The Society for Speculative Cartography charts imaginary worlds with scholarly rigor and unreasonable devotion.
I built this project to test Drag a procedurally inked globe of places that don't exist. An archive of maps of places that do not exist. The Society for Speculative Cartography charts imaginary worlds with scholarly rigor and unreasonable devotion. The core engineering challenge was sustaining uncompromised 60 FPS rendering using Three.js (GLB 3D) while handling continuous user interaction without framework overhead.
WHAT I WAS TESTING:
I focused on two core engineering benchmarks:
Precision implementation of procedural globe under continuous interactive user input
Sustained 60 FPS render performance and zero-dependency browser execution
THE TECHNICAL SIDE:
Engineered directly in the browser with Three.js (GLB 3D), WebGL / GLSL Shaders, Canvas2D, Procedural globe. The application runs without third-party frameworks or build-step dependencies, using hardware-accelerated rendering and custom event loops to achieve zero-latency response.
Everything executes in the browser using Three.js (GLB 3D), WebGL / GLSL Shaders, Canvas2D, Procedural globe. No third-party frameworks, no heavy runtime bundles, and zero external tracking.
WHAT I LEARNED:
Balancing the mathematical rigors of procedural globe with tactile browser interaction required tuning event throttling and memory allocation to eliminate all garbage collection stutters.
Finding the sweet spot between mathematical precision and frame budget took careful profiling, but the result runs at a steady 60 FPS even on modest hardware.
TRY IT YOURSELF:
The live build is deployed on Netlify. Open it in your browser, test the controls, and observe the render response times.
If you are building high-performance 3D, physics, or creative web systems and want to collaborate, reach out here on Contra.
Attractive visual design