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Color Palette Generator online

Generate harmonious color palettes — complementary, triadic, analogous, and more

Color Palette Generator logo
by
CHUNKY
MUNSTER

How to Use color-palette

  1. Pick or type a base colour.
  2. Choose a harmony: Complementary, Triadic, Analogous, Square, or Monochromatic.
  3. The palette appears with copyable HEX values and colour swatches.
  4. Download the palette as a CSS file or copy individual values.

Harmonious colour palettes are built on mathematical colour wheel relationships. This generator takes a single base colour and applies the chosen harmony rule — rotating the hue by fixed angles in HSL space — to produce 4–6 colours that look good together. No design training needed: pick a colour, choose a harmony, and copy the result.

How Colour Harmony Rules Work

Colour harmony rules describe how colours relate on a 360° hue wheel. Complementary colours sit 180° apart and create maximum visual contrast — used in logos and calls to action. Triadic palettes (120° spacing) are balanced and vibrant. Analogous palettes (30° steps) feel natural and restful. Monochromatic palettes vary only saturation and lightness of a single hue — clean and professional. The tool calculates all hue angles automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a tint, a tone, and a shade?

A tint is a colour mixed with white (lighter). A shade is a colour mixed with black (darker). A tone is a colour mixed with grey (more muted, less saturated). In HSL terms: tints increase lightness, shades decrease it, tones decrease saturation.

Can I use this to find a matching accent colour for my brand?

Yes. Enter your brand's primary colour, select Complementary or Split-Complementary, and use the resulting accent colour for secondary buttons, highlights, or hover states. This ensures the accent is mathematically harmonious with the primary.

Is a complementary colour always the right choice for contrast?

Not always. Complementary pairs create vibrating visual tension when placed directly adjacent at full saturation. For comfortable reading, use the complementary colour as an accent in small quantities against a neutral background rather than as large adjacent fields of colour.

What is a "60-30-10" colour rule?

A design guideline: use your dominant colour for 60% of the space (usually a neutral like background), secondary colour for 30% (main content and UI elements), and accent colour for 10% (buttons, links, and highlights). It creates visual hierarchy without chaos.

See also the Color Contrast Checker, Color Mixer, and the HEX Color Picker.