Image & Color Tools
Color Palette Generator
Generate beautiful color palettes from a base color. Create complementary, analogous, triadic, and tetradic color schemes. Perfect for web design, branding, and UI development.
Use Color Palette Generator to get instant results without uploads or sign-ups. Everything runs securely in your browser for fast, reliable output.
Your results will appear here.
About this tool
Color harmony is the foundation of good design. Colors that work well together create visual appeal, establish mood, and improve user experience. Our Color Palette Generator uses color theory principles to create professional, harmonious color schemes from any base color you provide.
Understanding color relationships is essential for designers. Complementary colors (opposite on the color wheel) create vibrant, high-contrast designs. Analogous colors (adjacent on the wheel) create serene, harmonious designs. Triadic colors (evenly spaced) create balanced, dynamic palettes. Each harmony type serves different design purposes.
Whether you're designing a website, creating a brand identity, developing a UI, or choosing colors for graphics, this tool eliminates guesswork. Instead of randomly picking colors and hoping they work together, use proven color theory to generate palettes that are mathematically harmonious and visually pleasing.
The tool converts your input color to HSL color space, then applies color wheel mathematics to find harmonious colors. All generated palettes follow established color theory principles used by professional designers worldwide.
Usage examples
Complementary Palette
High contrast pairs
Base: Blue (#0000FF) Complement: Orange (#FFA500) Creates vibrant, energetic designs
Analogous Palette
Harmonious adjacent colors
Base: Green Neighbors: Yellow-Green, Blue-Green Creates calm, natural palettes
Triadic Palette
Balanced three-color scheme
Base: Red Triadic: Blue, Yellow Evenly spaced on color wheel
Split Complementary
Softer than complementary
Base: Blue Split: Yellow-Orange, Red-Orange Less tension than pure complement
Tetradic (Square)
Four-color harmony
Base: Red Square: Orange, Green, Blue Rich, complex palettes
How to use
- Enter a base color in hex format (e.g., #3498db).
- Select a color harmony type (complementary, analogous, triadic, etc.).
- The tool generates a harmonious color palette based on color theory.
- View all colors with hex codes and RGB values.
- Copy individual colors or the entire palette.
- Use the generated palette in your design projects.
Benefits
- Generate harmonious color palettes instantly
- Based on proven color theory principles
- Multiple harmony types (complementary, analogous, triadic)
- Professional color schemes for any project
- Perfect for web design and branding
- Eliminate color selection guesswork
- See hex and RGB values for all colors
- Copy-ready color codes
- Create balanced, visually appealing designs
- Essential for UI/UX designers
- No design experience required
- Works offline in your browser
FAQs
What is color harmony?
Color harmony refers to combinations of colors that are aesthetically pleasing together. These combinations are based on relationships between colors on the color wheel. Harmonious colors create visual balance, establish mood, and make designs more appealing and effective.
What is the difference between complementary and analogous colors?
Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel (like blue and orange) and create high contrast, vibrant designs. Analogous colors are adjacent on the wheel (like blue, blue-green, green) and create harmonious, serene designs with less contrast. Use complementary for energy, analogous for calm.
What is a triadic color scheme?
Triadic color schemes use three colors evenly spaced around the color wheel (120° apart), like red, blue, and yellow. These create balanced, vibrant palettes with good contrast while remaining harmonious. They're popular for colorful, dynamic designs.
Which color harmony should I use for my project?
Complementary: High energy, bold designs, attention-grabbing. Analogous: Calm, cohesive, nature-inspired designs. Triadic: Balanced, vibrant, playful designs. Split-complementary: Like complementary but softer. Tetradic: Rich, complex, diverse palettes. Choose based on your project's mood and goals.
How do I use generated palettes in my designs?
Use the base color for primary elements (buttons, headers, links). Use analogous/complementary colors for accents and highlights. Use lighter/darker variations for backgrounds and text. Typically, use 60% dominant color, 30% secondary, 10% accent for balanced designs.
Can I generate palettes from any color?
Yes! Enter any hex color code and the tool will generate harmonious palettes based on color wheel relationships. The same base color will always generate the same palette for each harmony type, so results are predictable and reproducible.
What is the color wheel and why does it matter?
The color wheel organizes colors in a circle showing relationships between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. It's the foundation of color theory. Colors opposite on the wheel complement each other, adjacent colors harmonize, and evenly-spaced colors create balance. It's essential for creating professional color schemes.
Are these palettes accessible for colorblind users?
This tool generates aesthetically harmonious palettes but doesn't specifically test for colorblind accessibility. For accessible designs, also test with colorblind simulation tools and ensure sufficient contrast ratios (WCAG guidelines) between text and backgrounds, regardless of color choices.
Can I save or export the generated palettes?
Copy the palette output which includes all color codes in HEX, RGB, and HSL formats. For design tools: use Coolors.co or Adobe Color for export to Sketch/Figma. Save as CSS variables for web projects. Take screenshots for quick reference. Most tools let you bookmark URLs with color codes.
How many colors should I use in my palette?
Rule of thumb: 3-5 colors for web design. Primary (60% of design), Secondary (30%), Accent (10%). More colors create visual complexity. Less is often more. Add neutrals (blacks, grays, whites) separately. Start small and expand as needed. Most successful brands use 2-3 primary colors plus neutrals.
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