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.

Example in practice

Start from a brand blue at HSL(220, 80%, 55%). A complementary accent sits opposite on the wheel at hue 40, a warm amber. For a triadic scheme, rotate 120 degrees twice to hue 340 and hue 100. Keeping saturation and lightness constant while only rotating hue gives colours that feel related and balanced rather than random.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is judging contrast by hue alone; a bright yellow and white can look distinct yet fail WCAG contrast for text. Always check the contrast ratio, not just the colours. Another is using too many strong accent colours, which fragments a design — most palettes work best with one dominant colour, a secondary, and a single accent.

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.

What is the 60-30-10 rule in colour design?

It is a guideline for balancing a palette: about 60% of a design uses a dominant colour (often a neutral), 30% a secondary colour, and 10% an accent for highlights and calls to action. The proportions keep a layout cohesive while still giving the accent enough contrast to draw the eye.