Color Palette Generator

What is a color palette generator?

A color palette generator creates harmonious sets of colors based on color theory rules. Starting from a single base color, it generates complementary, analogous, triadic, split-complementary, and other color schemes. Designers use palette generators to quickly create cohesive color systems for websites, apps, brands, and illustrations.

Good color palettes are not random — they follow mathematical relationships on the color wheel. Complementary colors are opposite each other (high contrast). Analogous colors are adjacent (harmonious and calm). Triadic colors form an equilateral triangle (vibrant and balanced). This tool generates palettes using these and other proven harmony rules.

How to use this tool

Choose a base color using the color picker or enter a hex value. Select a harmony rule (complementary, analogous, triadic, etc.). The tool generates a complete palette with each color shown in a swatch along with its hex, RGB, and HSL values. Adjust the base color to see the palette update in real time.

Color harmony types

• Complementary — two colors opposite on the color wheel. High contrast, energetic. Example: blue and orange.
• Analogous — three colors adjacent on the wheel. Calm, cohesive. Example: blue, blue-green, green.
• Triadic — three colors evenly spaced (120 degrees apart). Balanced, vibrant. Example: red, yellow, blue.
• Split-complementary — a base color plus two colors adjacent to its complement. Contrast with less tension than complementary.

Color and accessibility

When designing digital interfaces, ensure sufficient contrast between text and background (WCAG requires a minimum 4.5:1 ratio for normal text). Avoid conveying information through color alone — about 8% of men have some form of color vision deficiency. Test your palette with a color blindness simulator. This tool can show contrast ratios between generated colors.

Frequently asked questions

How many colors should a palette have?

Most design systems use 5-7 colors: a primary brand color, a secondary accent, a neutral palette (grays for text and backgrounds), and possibly a semantic set (green for success, red for error, yellow for warning). Too many colors create visual chaos. Too few limit flexibility. Start with 3 colors plus neutrals and add only as needed.

What makes colors look good together?

Colors look harmonious when they have a mathematical relationship on the color wheel (complementary, triadic, etc.) or share a common property (same saturation level, similar brightness). The 60-30-10 rule is widely used: 60% dominant color, 30% secondary, 10% accent. Limiting the number of highly saturated colors and using plenty of neutral space also improves visual harmony.