Color Palette Generator
Generate beautiful color palettes instantly. Choose from monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triadic, and tetradic color schemes.
Generated Palette
Preview
Header
Primary content area
Secondary content
Palette Types Explained
- • Monochromatic: Different shades and tints of a single color
- • Analogous: Colors that are adjacent on the color wheel
- • Complementary: Colors opposite each other on the color wheel
- • Triadic: Three colors evenly spaced on the color wheel
- • Tetradic: Four colors arranged into two complementary pairs
- • Click any color swatch to copy its hex code instantly
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Everything You Need to Know
Complete guide, features, use cases, and frequently asked questions
What is a Color Palette Generator?
A color palette generator is an essential design tool that creates harmonious color schemes based on color theory principles. Our advanced color palette generator allows you to generate complementary, analogous, triadic, tetradic, monochromatic, and split-complementary color palettes from any base color. Perfect for web designers, graphic designers, UI/UX designers, brand developers, and digital artists who need professional color combinations for websites, apps, logos, illustrations, and marketing materials. The tool provides hex codes, RGB values, and HSL values for each color, enables palette export for design software, shows accessibility contrast ratios for text readability, and offers palette variations through hue, saturation, and lightness adjustments. Whether you are designing a website, creating a brand identity, or working on digital art, our color palette generator ensures your color choices are visually appealing, harmonious, and accessible. No design theory expertise required - let color science guide your creative decisions.
How to Use Our Color Palette Generator
- Select a base color using the color picker or enter a hex code directly
- Choose a color harmony rule: complementary, analogous, triadic, tetradic, monochromatic, or split-complementary
- View the generated color palette with harmonious color combinations
- Adjust individual colors using sliders for hue, saturation, and lightness customization
- Check color contrast ratios to ensure accessibility (WCAG AA/AAA compliance)
- Lock specific colors to keep them while regenerating others
- Click on any color to copy its hex code, RGB, or HSL values to clipboard
- Export the palette as CSS variables, Sass/SCSS, JSON, or Adobe Swatch (.ase) format
- Generate random palettes for inspiration using the "Randomize" button
- Save your favorite palettes to your browser for future reference
Key Features & Benefits
Multiple Color Harmonies
Generate complementary, analogous, triadic, tetradic, monochromatic, and split-complementary palettes based on proven color theory principles.
Accessibility Checker
Real-time WCAG contrast ratio checking ensures text readability and accessibility compliance. See which color combinations meet AA and AAA standards.
Advanced Color Adjustments
Fine-tune each color with hue, saturation, and lightness sliders. Create perfect shades, tints, and tones to match your exact vision.
Multiple Export Formats
Export palettes as CSS custom properties, Sass/SCSS variables, JSON, Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase), or plain color codes for seamless workflow integration.
Color Code Formats
View and copy colors in HEX, RGB, HSL, or CMYK formats. Choose the format that works best for your design workflow or medium.
Palette Variations
Generate tints (lighter), shades (darker), and tones (muted) of your palette. Create comprehensive color systems for complex design projects.
Common Use Cases
Website Design
Create cohesive color schemes for websites and web applications. Ensure brand consistency across headers, buttons, backgrounds, and text with harmonious palettes.
Brand Identity Development
Develop professional brand color palettes for logos, marketing materials, and corporate identities. Establish primary, secondary, and accent colors that work together.
UI/UX Design
Design user interfaces with accessible, visually pleasing color combinations. Ensure proper contrast ratios for buttons, forms, navigation, and interactive elements.
Graphic Design Projects
Generate color schemes for posters, flyers, infographics, social media graphics, and print materials. Maintain visual harmony across design elements.
Digital Art & Illustration
Find inspiring color combinations for digital paintings, illustrations, and artwork. Explore color harmonies to create mood, depth, and visual interest.
Presentation Design
Create professional color schemes for PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides presentations. Ensure readability and visual impact for slides and charts.
Why Choose Our Color Palette Generator
- ✓Based on proven color theory principles for professional, harmonious results
- ✓Multiple harmony rules: complementary, analogous, triadic, tetradic, monochromatic
- ✓Built-in accessibility checker with WCAG contrast ratio compliance
- ✓Fine-grained control with hue, saturation, and lightness adjustments
- ✓Export to CSS, Sass, JSON, Adobe Swatch for seamless workflow integration
- ✓Color format flexibility: HEX, RGB, HSL, CMYK - use what works for you
- ✓Generate palette variations: tints, shades, tones for comprehensive color systems
- ✓Random palette generation for creative inspiration and exploration
- ✓100% free with unlimited palette generation and no registration
- ✓Privacy-first - all palettes generated locally in your browser, never uploaded
Frequently Asked Questions
What is color harmony?
Color harmony is the theory of combining colors in aesthetically pleasing ways based on their relationships on the color wheel. Complementary colors are opposite (high contrast), analogous colors are adjacent (harmonious), triadic uses three evenly spaced colors (vibrant balance), and monochromatic uses variations of one hue (unified). These relationships create visually balanced, professional designs.
How do I choose the right color harmony?
Complementary (opposite colors) creates bold, high-contrast designs. Analogous (adjacent colors) creates calm, harmonious designs. Triadic (three evenly spaced) creates vibrant, balanced designs. Monochromatic (one color variations) creates sophisticated, unified designs. Choose based on your project mood: energetic (complementary/triadic) vs. calm (analogous/monochromatic).
What are WCAG contrast ratios?
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) defines contrast ratios for text readability. AA level requires 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text. AAA (enhanced) requires 7:1 for normal text, 4.5:1 for large text. Our tool calculates these ratios automatically to ensure your color combinations are accessible to users with visual impairments.
Can I use generated palettes commercially?
Yes! All color palettes generated with our tool are free to use for both personal and commercial projects without attribution. Colors cannot be copyrighted, so you own the palettes you create. Use them for client work, products, brands, or any commercial application.
What is the difference between tints, shades, and tones?
Tints are created by adding white to a color (lighter, pastel versions). Shades are created by adding black (darker, richer versions). Tones are created by adding gray (muted, sophisticated versions). Using tints, shades, and tones of your palette colors creates depth and visual hierarchy in designs.
How do I export palettes to design software?
For Adobe software (Photoshop, Illustrator), export as .ase (Adobe Swatch Exchange). For Figma/Sketch, copy HEX codes or export as JSON and import manually. For web development, export as CSS custom properties or Sass variables and paste into your stylesheets. For print design, use CMYK values.
What if I want to change one color but keep others?
Use the "Lock" feature to preserve specific colors while regenerating or randomizing others. This is perfect when you have a brand color that must be included but need complementary colors around it. Lock your primary color and generate harmonies based on it.
How can I find inspiration for color palettes?
Use the "Randomize" feature to explore unexpected color combinations. Study color palettes from nature, art, photography, or successful brands. Consider the emotional response you want: warm colors (red, orange, yellow) feel energetic, cool colors (blue, green, purple) feel calm. Start with your brand or project personality and build from there.
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