Color Palette Generator — 7 Color Schemes
Generate colour palettes from analogous, complementary, triadic and tetradic harmony rules. Copy as HEX. No contrast guarantee.
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Harmony rules are hue arithmetic on a colour wheel
Each rule is a fixed rotation around the hue circle — nothing more mysterious than that, and knowing it makes the whole idea easier to use deliberately. This tool implements six:
| Scheme | What it does | Swatches |
|---|---|---|
| Analogous | Neighbouring hues either side of the base | 5 |
| Complementary | The hue 180° opposite, with lightness adjusted for legibility | 4 |
| Triadic | Three hues evenly spaced at 120° | 3 |
| Split-complementary | The two hues flanking the complement, at 150° and 210° | 3 |
| Tetradic | Four hues at 90° intervals | 4 |
| Monochromatic | One hue at five lightness levels | 5 |
Saturation is carried across from your base colour in every scheme except the complementary one, which also nudges lightness so the pair remains distinguishable.
The rules say nothing about readability
This is the limitation that matters most, and it is absolute. Harmony rules operate on hue alone. They guarantee a pleasing relationship between hues and guarantee nothing about contrast, legibility or accessibility.
Two complementary colours at the same lightness are maximally harmonious by the rule and can be very nearly unreadable as text on a background. Your eye separates them by hue, while contrast is computed from luminance — and if the luminance is similar, the measured ratio is close to nothing however different the colours look.
So a palette generated here is not usable as text-and-background pairs without checking. Run every pairing you intend to ship through the colour contrast checker and adjust one colour of each pair until it clears the threshold.
Equal hue steps are not equally perceived
A subtler problem. The rotations happen in a space where equal steps are not perceived equally, because perceived lightness varies enormously by hue at the same nominal value.
Pure red, green and blue sit at exactly 120° apart — geometrically perfect and visually unbalanced, since blue reads as considerably darker than the other two. A triadic palette can therefore look lopsided while being arithmetically flawless, and the fix is to adjust the lightness of individual swatches by eye rather than to distrust the rule.
A palette is a starting point, not a system
Generated swatches describe accent relationships. A real interface needs far more neutrals than accents: most surfaces should be close to neutral, with harmony colours used sparingly for emphasis. A design built from five saturated swatches at equal weight tends to look like a swatch card rather than a product.
The more useful move is to treat each chosen hue as the seed for a lightness ramp — a set of tints and shades from that hue — which gives you the hierarchy and depth an interface actually needs. Use the generator to settle the hue relationships, then build the ramps from them.
Individual swatches copy as hex, and the whole palette copies as a comma-separated list for pasting into a stylesheet or spreadsheet.
How to use the Color Palette Generator
Takes about a minute. No signup, no download, your data stays in your browser.
- 1Open the tool. Scroll up to the Color Palette Generator above — it loads instantly in your browser, no install needed.
- 2Enter your values. The fields come pre-filled with realistic defaults so you can see how it works — replace them with your own numbers.
- 3Read the result. The output updates instantly. Copy or share it — nothing is uploaded to a server, everything stays on your device.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about the Color Palette Generator.
Which harmony schemes are available?
Six: analogous using neighbouring hues, complementary at 180 degrees opposite, triadic at three hues 120 degrees apart, split-complementary using the two hues flanking the complement, tetradic at four hues 90 degrees apart, and monochromatic which holds the hue and varies lightness. There is also a random option that generates unrelated hues.
How many colours does each scheme give me?
Analogous and monochromatic produce five swatches, complementary and tetradic produce four, and triadic and split-complementary produce three. Your base saturation carries through in every scheme except complementary, which also adjusts lightness so the two colours stay distinguishable from each other.
Can I use these directly as text and background pairs?
No, not without checking. Harmony rules work on hue and say nothing about contrast, so two perfectly harmonious colours at similar lightness can be almost unreadable as text. Contrast comes from luminance rather than hue, so run every pairing through a contrast checker and adjust one of the two until it passes.
Why does a triadic palette sometimes look unbalanced?
Because equal hue rotations are not equal perceptual steps. Perceived lightness varies a great deal by hue, so blue looks darker than red or green at the same nominal lightness even though all three sit exactly 120 degrees apart. Nudge the lightness of individual swatches by eye — the rule is correct, your perception is simply not linear.
How should I turn a palette into a real design system?
Treat the swatches as accent relationships rather than a finished set. Interfaces need far more neutrals than accents, so most surfaces should be near-neutral with these colours used sparingly. Take each chosen hue and build a lightness ramp of tints and shades from it, which gives you the hierarchy a real interface needs.
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