Tuto - Master the Color System

The Problem

With traditional design software, creating multi-category decks creates a maintenance nightmare. Let's say you have five categories—green for outputs, violet for capabilities, red for risks—and you create a separate template for each color.

Now you want to change the title position. You'll need to edit all five templates. Change the layout? Edit all five again. This doesn't scale.

I Love Cards solves this with a powerful color system.

Create Your Color Palette

Here's a demo deck with four categories: Stability, Change, Relationship, and Task. I've already created a simple black-and-white template with a title, one-liner, and footer branding.

Let's build a color palette. Think of it as a color dictionary where you define what each color token means for your deck.

In the deck builder, click Edit Colors and create a new palette. I'll name this "Stormz" after my company.

The palette has four sections where I'll assign values to color tokens:

• Brand colors – tokens for your company identity (I'll set Brand Color 1 to Stormz blue, Brand Color 2 to red)
• Category colors – tokens to differentiate card types (Category Color 1, 2, 3, 4...)
• Neutral colors – for text and structure
• Contrast variants – auto-generated for readability

For category colors, Stormz uses vibrant colors—you can see that on the website—so I'll select the vibrant style.

Save the palette. It's now active in your deck.

Use Color Tokens, Not Fixed Values

Here's the key: when designing your template, don't assign fixed color values. Assign color tokens.

I'll click a card to edit the template. Right now everything is black. For the footer background, instead of selecting the fixed "Stormz blue" value, I select the Brand Color 1 token from the color picker.

What's the difference? A color token like "Brand Color 1" is a semantic name that maps to whatever color value you set in your palette. Right now, Brand Color 1 = Stormz blue. But I can change that mapping.

Watch this: I duplicate the palette, change the Brand Color 1 token from blue to green, and save. Instantly, the entire deck rebrands. No template changes needed.

This is perfect for white-labeling. One palette change, and you've customized the deck for a new client.

Dynamic Colors with Primary Color Token

Now let's make categories show different colors with the same template.

First, I'll select the title text and set its color to Primary Color—the rainbow icon in the color picker. Primary Color is a dynamic token that resolves to whatever primary color this card inherits from its category.

Next, I'll edit the icon. I just need to change two colors: set the background to Primary Color, and set the icon outline to High Contrast—this token automatically chooses black or white for maximum readability.

Save the template.

Map Primary Color to Each Category

Now each category needs its primary color value. In the deck builder, I open the Stability category settings and set its primary color to Category Color 1 (blue). The category cards instantly update.

I'll do the rest:

• Change → Category Color 2 (orange)
• Relationship → Category Color 3 (pink)
• Task → Category Color 4 (violet)

Done. One template, four colors, completely dynamic. Each card's Primary Color token resolves to its category's assigned color.

What You've Achieved

You now have a deck where:

• One template works for all categories
• Brand colors update across the entire deck in seconds
• Category colors differentiate card types automatically
• White-labeling is instant

This system saves hours. You can build and iterate on multi-category decks incredibly fast.

That's the color system. See you next time!