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Color Palette Generator

Create beautiful color palettes from any base color. Choose from 8 harmony modes, tweak the results, and copy any color with one click — 100% in your browser.

🎨 Generated Palette Click any swatch to copy its HEX
📋 Export Palette — click to copy
HEX List — copy
RGB List — copy
HSL List — copy
CSS Variables — copy
Tailwind Config — copy
SCSS Variables — copy
JSON — copy

What Is a Color Palette?

A color palette is a curated set of colors used consistently across a design — a website, brand, app, or illustration. Good palettes balance harmony (colors look good together) with contrast (enough variation to separate elements). This tool generates palettes using proven color theory principles.

How to Use This Tool

  • Pick a base color — use the color swatch or type a HEX code.
  • Choose a harmony mode — complementary, analogous, triadic, and more.
  • Adjust saturation and lightness — fine-tune the mood of the entire palette.
  • Change the size — 3, 4, 5, or 6 colors.
  • Click any swatch to copy its HEX code.
  • Export the palette as HEX, RGB, HSL, CSS variables, Tailwind config, SCSS, or JSON.

Color Harmony Modes

Mode How It Works Best For
Complementary Base color + its opposite (180°) on the color wheel High contrast, bold statements, call-to-action accents
Analogous Base + adjacent hues (±30°) Soft, cohesive, nature-inspired designs
Triadic 3 evenly spaced hues (120° apart) Vibrant, playful designs
Tetradic Rectangle on the wheel (two complementary pairs) Rich, varied palettes for complex layouts
Split-Complementary Base + two hues adjacent to its complement High contrast with less tension than true complementary
Monochromatic Single hue, varied lightness Elegant, minimal, focused designs
Shades & Tints Base color darkened and lightened across the palette UI systems with a single brand color
Square 4 evenly spaced hues (90° apart) Balanced, energetic designs

Color Theory Basics

Every color can be described with three properties:

  • Hue — the color itself (red, blue, green). Represented as an angle 0–360° on the color wheel.
  • Saturation — the intensity or purity. 0% is gray, 100% is the most vivid version.
  • Lightness — how light or dark. 0% is black, 100% is white.

This is the HSL color model, which is much more intuitive for generating harmonious palettes than RGB.

The 60-30-10 Rule

A classic design principle for applying a palette to a layout:

  • 60% — dominant color (usually a neutral background)
  • 30% — secondary color (used in larger UI elements)
  • 10% — accent color (buttons, highlights, CTAs)

Best Practices

  • Don't overload — 3–5 colors is usually enough for most designs.
  • Include neutrals — a light, mid, and dark shade for backgrounds and text.
  • Check contrast — test pairs with our Contrast Checker to ensure accessibility.
  • Consider color blindness — preview with the Color Blindness Simulator.
  • Test in context — a palette that works in a swatch may not work on a full layout.
  • Keep brand consistency — reuse the same palette across all touchpoints.

Common Use Cases

  • Branding — define a company's primary, secondary, and accent colors.
  • Web design — build a theme with background, text, and interactive colors.
  • UI/UX — create consistent design system tokens.
  • Illustration — establish a coherent color scheme for artwork.
  • Presentations — pick chart and slide colors that work together.
  • Interior design — match paint, furniture, and fabric tones.

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Privacy Note

Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or shared. Your recent palettes stay in your browser's memory only for the current session.