Color Palette Generator

Generate harmonious colour palettes from a base colour using colour theory.

Click any swatch to copy HEX

How It Works

Enter a base colour or use the colour picker. Select a harmony rule (complementary, triadic, analogous, etc.) to generate a matching palette.

**Color Palette Generator — Build Beautiful Colour Schemes**

Choosing colours that work well together is one of the most challenging aspects of design. Colour theory provides proven rules for creating harmonious palettes. Our generator applies these rules automatically to any base colour you choose.

**Colour Harmony Rules**

**Complementary**
Two colours directly opposite on the colour wheel.
High contrast, vibrant, energetic. Used for calls-to-action against background.
Example: Blue (#0000FF) + Orange (#FF8000)

**Split-Complementary**
Base colour + two colours adjacent to its complement.
Slightly less contrast than complementary but more visual interest.

**Triadic**
Three colours equally spaced on the colour wheel (120° apart).
Vibrant and balanced. Works well for brands needing three distinct colours.
Example: Red, Yellow, Blue

**Tetradic (Square)**
Four colours equally spaced (90° apart). Rich colour scheme.
Requires careful balance — let one colour dominate.

**Analogous**
Three to five colours adjacent on the colour wheel.
Harmonious and natural-looking. Common in nature. Low contrast.
Example: Red, Red-Orange, Orange

**Monochromatic**
Variations in saturation and lightness of a single hue.
Cohesive and professional. Works well for minimalist designs.

**Tints and Shades Generator**

In addition to harmony-based palettes, our tool generates a full tint (lighter) and shade (darker) scale for any colour — perfect for building design system colour tokens.

**Tailwind CSS Colour Export**

Export any palette as Tailwind CSS configuration, with named colour values (100–900 scale) ready to paste into your tailwind.config.js.

Frequently Asked Questions

Complementary is great for high impact. Analogous is calmer and more harmonious. Triadic gives versatility. For most brand designs, a monochromatic palette with one accent colour is timeless.
Consider the emotion and industry: blue conveys trust (banking, tech), green suggests nature/health, red creates urgency (sales, food), purple signals luxury. Then generate a full palette from that colour.
A named colour value in a design system (primary-500, neutral-200, etc.) that ensures consistent colour use across a product. Our tint/shade generator creates these scales.
Yes. Export as CSS custom properties (variables), Tailwind config, SCSS variables, or plain HEX/RGB list.
60% dominant colour (usually neutral), 30% secondary colour, 10% accent/pop colour. This ensures visual balance without one colour overwhelming the design.