Skip to main content

Color Palette Generator – Generate Color Online (Free Tool)

Free online Color Palette Generator tool to generate beautiful color palettes from a base color. Create harmonious color schemes including complementary and analogous colors.

Example Output

Five harmonious colours generated by rotating hue around the colour wheel and adjusting lightness — ready for use in UI, branding, or illustration.

Base: #2563eb · Harmony: triadic · 5 colours
#2563eb · #eb2563 · #63eb25 · #1e3a8a · #be123c

What is Color Palette Generator?

Generate a balanced, harmonious colour palette from any base colour using colour-theory rules (complementary, triadic, tetradic, analogous, monochromatic, split-complementary). Export as HEX, CSS custom properties, Tailwind config, or Figma design tokens — instantly drop into your design system.

Why use this tool?

  • No API keys to manage and no rate limits to monitor
  • 100% free with no hidden costs or daily limits
  • Works offline after the first page load
  • WCAG contrast checks calculated correctly for AA and AAA, both text and large text
  • Outputs valid CSS, Tailwind, and design-tool color formats side-by-side

How to use

  1. Pick a base colour (or click "random")
  2. Choose harmony rule (complementary, triadic, analogous, etc.)
  3. Adjust palette size (3-10)
  4. Copy as HEX list, CSS variables, Tailwind config, or Figma tokens

Examples

Brand palette from a logo colour

Sample the brand blue from a logo and generate a 5-colour triadic palette for the rest of the site (primary, secondary, accent, neutral, danger).

Dark + light mode siblings

For each generated colour, the tool also gives you a darker and lighter variant — instant dark-mode pairs.

Tailwind theme.colors export

Export the palette as a `tailwind.config.js` snippet you can paste straight into the project.

Common use cases

  • Building a brand colour system from one base colour
  • Generating illustration / data-viz palettes
  • Creating Tailwind / design-token configs
  • Quick mood-board palettes for client presentations
  • Accessibility-aware palette exploration (with contrast checks)

Troubleshooting

Generated colours look muddy
The base colour was already desaturated. Pick a more saturated base, or toggle "boost saturation" so derived colours stay vibrant.
Some pairs fail WCAG contrast
Run each pair through the Color Contrast Checker tool. Harmony ≠ accessibility — adjust lightness manually for critical text/background pairs.
Triadic palette looks gaudy
Triadic = 120° hue spacing — vivid by design. Try split-complementary or analogous for more subtle palettes.

Frequently Asked Questions

You can generate complementary (opposite colors), analogous (adjacent colors), triadic (3 evenly spaced), tetradic (4 evenly spaced), and split-complementary palettes based on your chosen base color.

Try these related tools

Explore more Color Tools

Discover other free, privacy-first tools in Color Tools.