Color Palette Generator
Generate beautiful color palettes for your designs. Create random, complementary, monochromatic, analogous, triadic, and tetradic color schemes with multiple color format options.
#3B82F6 #10B981 #F59E0B #EF4444 #8B5CF6 Table of Contents
What is a Color Palette?
A color palette is a collection of colors chosen to work harmoniously together in a design. A well-designed color palette creates visual cohesion, guides user attention, and establishes the mood and tone of your project. Whether you're designing a website, creating graphics, or planning a brand identity, a carefully selected color palette is essential.
Our palette generator helps you create professional color schemes using proven color theory principles, ensuring your colors work together beautifully.
Palette Types Explained
Random Palette
Generates a completely random set of five colors. Perfect for inspiration or when you need unexpected color combinations. Each time you generate, you'll get a unique palette.
Complementary Palette
Uses colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. Complementary colors create high contrast and visual interest. This palette type generates colors based on your base color and its complement, creating a vibrant and dynamic scheme.
Monochromatic Palette
Uses colors that are variations of the same hue. Monochromatic palettes create a sense of unity and harmony. This type is perfect for creating cohesive, calming color schemes that feel natural and balanced.
Analogous Palette
Uses colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Analogous palettes create harmonious and serene designs. This type is perfect for creating cohesive, calming color schemes that feel natural and balanced.
Triadic Palette
Uses three colors evenly spaced around the color wheel, forming a triangle. Triadic palettes offer balanced contrast while maintaining harmony. This creates vibrant yet balanced color schemes that are visually interesting without being overwhelming.
Tetradic Palette
Uses four colors evenly spaced around the color wheel, forming a square. Tetradic palettes offer balanced contrast while maintaining harmony. This creates vibrant yet balanced color schemes that are visually interesting without being overwhelming.
Custom Palette
Manually edit each color in your palette. Click on any color swatch or edit the hex code directly to create your perfect custom color scheme. All color values (RGB, HSL) update automatically as you edit.
Use Cases
Color palettes are essential in many design contexts:
- Web Design: Create consistent color schemes for websites and web applications
- Brand Identity: Develop color palettes that represent your brand's personality and values
- Graphic Design: Choose colors for logos, posters, flyers, and other visual materials
- UI/UX Design: Design user interfaces with accessible and harmonious color schemes
- Digital Art: Generate color inspiration for digital paintings and illustrations
- CSS Development: Get color codes in multiple formats (HEX, RGB, HSL) for direct use in stylesheets
- Marketing Materials: Create visually appealing color schemes for campaigns and advertisements
Color Formats
HEX (Hexadecimal)
A six-digit hexadecimal code representing red, green, and blue values. Example: #3B82F6. Widely used in web design and
CSS.
RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
Three values representing the intensity of red, green, and blue (0-255 each). Example: rgb(59, 130, 246). Used in digital
design and image editing.
HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness)
Three values representing hue (0-360°), saturation (0-100%), and lightness (0-100%).
Example: hsl(217, 91%, 60%). Great for
creating color variations and understanding color relationships.
Best Practices
Limit Your Palette
Use 3-5 colors as your primary palette. Too many colors can create visual chaos and confuse users. Reserve additional colors for accents or special cases.
Consider Contrast
Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background colors for readability. This is especially important for accessibility and WCAG compliance.
Use Color Theory
Leverage color theory principles (complementary, analogous, triadic) to create harmonious palettes. Our generator uses these principles to help you create balanced color schemes.
Test in Context
Always test your color palette in the actual design context. Colors can appear different when used together versus in isolation.
Consider Accessibility
Ensure your color choices are accessible to users with color vision deficiencies. Use tools to check contrast ratios and avoid relying solely on color to convey information.
Frequently Asked Questions
Complementary palettes use colors opposite each other on the color wheel, creating high contrast and vibrancy. Analogous palettes use adjacent colors on the color wheel, creating harmony and a more subtle, cohesive look.
Yes! All colors generated by this tool are free to use in any project, commercial or personal. Colors themselves cannot be copyrighted, so you can use any color palette you generate.
HEX is most common for web development and CSS. RGB is useful for digital design tools. HSL is great for creating color variations programmatically. Choose based on your workflow and tools.
Select "Custom" from the palette type options, then click on any color swatch or edit the hex code directly. The RGB and HSL values will update automatically as you make changes.
Currently, palettes are not saved automatically. You can copy the color codes and save them manually, or bookmark the page with your custom palette. We're working on adding save functionality in the future.
While our generator creates harmonious color schemes, you should always test color combinations for accessibility, especially text/background contrast. Use accessibility tools to verify WCAG compliance for your specific use case.