Color Palette Generator
This color palette generator turns a single base color into a full working palette, right in your browser. Pick a color (or type a HEX code), and it builds a light-to-dark strip of shades and tints plus complementary, analogous, and triadic harmonies you can click to copy. Everything runs client-side, with no sign-up and nothing uploaded.
Pick and copy colors.
How to use the palette
- Set your base color: use the native color picker or type a HEX code (3 or 6 digits, with or without the #) into the editable field.
- Scan the Shades & tints strip - nine light-to-dark variations of your hue - and click any swatch to copy its HEX for backgrounds, borders, and states.
- Open the Color harmonies row to see the complementary, two analogous (plus/minus 30 degrees), and two triadic colors generated from your base.
- Click any harmony swatch to copy its HEX code, then paste the values into your CSS, stylesheet, or design tool.
- Adjust the base color and watch the whole palette regenerate; repeat until the shades and harmonies feel right together.
About the palette
Most people don't need a hundred swatches. They need one color they like and a handful of colors that go with it. That is exactly what this color palette generator does: you set a base color with the native picker or by typing a HEX value, and it derives the rest for you. The Shades & tints strip gives you nine steps from a near-white tint down to a deep shade of the same hue, which is what you reach for when you need hover states, disabled text, card backgrounds, and borders that all clearly belong to the same family. Click any swatch and its HEX is copied to your clipboard.
Alongside the tints, the Color harmonies row builds palettes from color-wheel relationships around your base: the complementary color (directly opposite, for high-contrast accents), two analogous colors at plus and minus 30 degrees (neighbors that feel calm and cohesive), and two triadic colors evenly spaced around the wheel (a balanced, punchier three-color scheme). Each harmony swatch is click-to-copy too, so you can drop values straight into your CSS or design file. Because the math is standard HSL hue rotation, the results are predictable and easy to tweak: nudge the base hue and the whole palette shifts with it.
This page is one view of the same free Color Picker used across the site, focused on palette building. If you already have RGB values from a design tool and want a hex code for the web, the RGB to HEX converter handles that; if you want to blend two of your palette colors into a background, the CSS gradient generator turns them into a copy-ready linear-gradient. To be clear about what this tool does not do: it does not extract a palette from an uploaded photo or image, and it has no Pantone or print-spot-color database. It generates palettes mathematically from the base color you choose, for screen and CSS work.
Frequently asked questions
- What does this color palette generator actually create?
- From one base color it builds two things: a Shades & tints strip (nine light-to-dark variations of the same hue) and a set of harmonies - the complementary color, two analogous colors at plus and minus 30 degrees, and two triadic colors. Every swatch is click-to-copy as HEX.
- How does the color palette maker choose the harmony colors?
- It rotates the base color's hue around the color wheel in HSL. Complementary is 180 degrees opposite, analogous are the neighbors at plus and minus 30 degrees, and triadic are spaced evenly around the wheel. That makes the results predictable, so changing the base shifts the whole palette in a consistent way.
- Can it generate a palette from an image or photo?
- No. This tool builds palettes mathematically from the single base color you pick or type. It does not pick colors out of an uploaded image or screenshot. If you already know a color's HEX or RGB values, enter those and it will generate the rest.
- Are the palette colors Pantone or print-ready?
- No. There is no Pantone or spot-color database here. The palette is generated in HEX/RGB/HSL for screen and CSS use. For print color matching you would need a dedicated Pantone reference, which this tool intentionally does not include.
- What is the difference between shades, tints, and harmonies?
- Shades and tints keep the same hue and only change lightness - tints are lighter, shades are darker - which is ideal for UI states and backgrounds that should feel unified. Harmonies change the hue to give you accent and secondary colors that relate to the base but stand apart.
- Do I need an account, and where do my colors go?
- No account, no sign-up. The color palette generator runs entirely in your browser, so your base color and the generated palette never leave your device. It is part of the same free Color Picker - see the RGB to HEX converter and the CSS gradient generator for related tasks.