Color Palette Generator
Build tints, shades, and color schemes from one base color
What is Color Palette Generator?
This color palette generator works in HSL space to derive four kinds of schemes from a single base color — monochromatic, analogous, complementary, and triadic — and outputs CSS custom properties you can drop straight into a stylesheet. Everything is generated locally in your browser.
How to use Color Palette Generator
- 1Pick a base color, typically your primary brand color.
- 2Switch between scheme types to compare the derived results.
- 3Copy the CSS custom properties as a starting point for your design tokens.
- 4Verify any critical pairing with a contrast checker before shipping it.
Frequently asked questions
Why generate palettes in HSL instead of adjusting hex values?+
HSL splits a color into hue, saturation, and lightness — three dimensions you can control independently. A tint scale changes only lightness, a color scheme rotates only hue, and the results stay coherent by construction. Nudging hex values by hand makes it very hard to keep steps consistent across a scale.
Can I use the generated color scale as is?+
Use it as a starting point, then verify. Evenly spaced lightness values are not evenly spaced perceptually, especially through the yellows and blues, so any text-on-background pairing that matters must be checked against the WCAG contrast thresholds with a contrast checker.
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