Color Palette Generator

Generate a color palette from one colour: complementary, analogous, triadic, split complementary, tetradic or monochromatic, with HEX codes to copy.

Base colour
Color harmony

Generate a Color Palette from One Colour

Start with the colour you already have, a brand colour, the blue of a logo or a shade you like, and this generator builds a colour scheme around it using the colour wheel. Pick the base colour with the swatch or type its HEX code, choose a harmony, and the palette fills the screen as big swatches. Tap any swatch to copy its HEX code, or press Copy CSS to copy the whole palette as CSS variables, ready for a stylesheet. Random rolls a new base colour (Space does the same on a keyboard) and keeps the harmony you chose, which is a quick way to explore ideas for a website, a presentation or a logo.

Complementary, Triadic and the Other Schemes

Each harmony is a rule for turning the base colour's hue around the wheel while keeping its saturation and lightness. Complementary adds the colour opposite, 180 degrees away, for the strongest contrast. Analogous takes the neighbours 30 degrees either side, calm and natural. Triadic spaces three colours 120 degrees apart. Split complementary uses the two colours beside the complement, at 150 and 210 degrees, with less tension than a straight complement. Tetradic makes a square of four colours 90 degrees apart. Monochromatic keeps one hue and steps the lightness, five shades from dark to light, with your colour among them.

Using the Palette

A common way to use a scheme is the 60-30-10 rule: one colour for about 60 percent of a design (backgrounds, large areas), a second for 30 percent (cards, sections) and an accent for the last 10 percent (buttons, links). A complementary or split complementary palette gives a natural accent; a monochromatic one keeps everything calm. To take the colours from a photo instead of a colour wheel, use /color-palette-extractor/; to read the exact colour of one spot in a picture, use /color-picker/.

Private by Design

Everything happens in your browser. The colours you try, including an unreleased brand colour, are never sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions About Color Palette Generator

What is a complementary colour scheme?

Two colours on opposite sides of the colour wheel, such as blue and orange or red and cyan. Choose Complementary, set your colour as the base, and the second swatch is its complement with the same saturation and lightness.

How do I copy the colours?

Tap a swatch to copy its HEX code. Copy CSS copies the whole palette as custom properties in a :root block, named --color-1, --color-2 and so on, in the order shown.

Why does the monochromatic palette not centre on my colour?

The five shades are 15 lightness points apart. When your colour is very light or very dark there is no room for two lighter or two darker shades, so the ladder slides the other way instead of repeating white or black. Your colour is always one of the five.

Is anything uploaded?

No. The palette is calculated on your device, and nothing you type or pick is sent to a server.