ToolHorizon

🎨 Color Palette Generator

🌈 Color Harmony Types
The science behind beautiful color combinations
Complementary
Two colors opposite each other on the color wheel. High contrast, bold, and attention-grabbing.
Analogous
Three colors adjacent on the wheel. Harmonious, natural, and easy on the eyes.
Triadic
Three colors evenly spaced around the wheel. Vibrant and balanced at the same time.
Monochromatic
Shades and tints of a single hue. Elegant, professional, and very easy to work with.
Split-Complementary
A base color plus two colors adjacent to its complement. Less tension than pure complementary.
Tetradic / Square
Four colors evenly spaced. Rich and varied palette but requires care to balance well.
🚀 How to Use
Generate your perfect palette in four steps
1

Pick a Base Color

Use the color picker, enter a HEX code, or choose from preset color collections. This becomes the anchor for your entire palette.

2

Choose a Harmony Type

Select Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, Monochromatic, Split-Complementary, or Tetradic depending on your design needs.

3

Adjust & Explore

Fine-tune the generated palette by dragging hue/saturation sliders or locking individual colors while regenerating the rest. Explore variations with one click.

4

Export Your Palette

Copy individual HEX/RGB/HSL values, export as CSS variables, JSON, ASE (Adobe), Figma-ready file, or save as a PNG swatch image.

💡 Use Cases
Who uses the Color Palette Generator
🎨

Brand Identity

Create a consistent brand color palette for logos, websites, and print materials.

💻

UI/UX Design

Build accessible, visually balanced color systems for web and mobile apps.

🖼️

Illustration & Art

Choose harmonious color combinations for digital paintings and illustrations.

🎓

Learning Color Theory

Visually understand color relationships and harmony principles interactively.

🏠

Interior Design

Generate room color schemes starting from a furniture color or inspiration photo.

👗

Fashion & Textiles

Explore color combinations for clothing collections and fabric pairings.

✨ Pro Tips
⚖️

60-30-10 Rule

In a 3-color palette, use the dominant color for 60% of a design, secondary for 30%, and accent for 10%. This creates visual balance.

♿

Check Accessibility

After generating a palette, test all text-on-background color combinations for WCAG contrast ratio (minimum 4.5:1 for small text).

🖤

Add Neutrals

Every palette needs neutrals (off-white, light grey, dark grey). Generate your accent palette first, then add 2–3 neutrals manually.

🔒

Lock & Regenerate

Found one color you love? Lock it, then hit regenerate to find new palette combinations that always include your locked color.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Everything about generating color palettes
What is color harmony? +
Color harmony refers to the arrangement of colors that are visually pleasing when used together. It is based on color theory principles using the color wheel — colors at specific angular relationships (complementary = 180°, triadic = 120°, analogous = 30°) naturally look good together.
How many colors should a brand palette have? +
A solid brand palette typically has 1–2 primary colors, 1–2 secondary colors, and 2–3 neutral colors (whites, greys, blacks). That's 5–7 colors total. Too many colors makes a brand feel inconsistent — stick to a defined, limited palette for all materials.
Can I generate a palette from an image? +
Yes — use the Image Color Picker tool to extract colors from a photo, then bring those HEX codes here to build a harmony-based palette around one of them.
What export formats are available? +
Palettes can typically be exported as: CSS custom properties, Sass/LESS variables, JSON (for design tokens), Adobe ASE (for Photoshop/Illustrator), PNG swatch images, and Figma-compatible formats.
Which harmony type is best for beginners? +
Monochromatic and Analogous are the easiest to work with — they are naturally harmonious and low-risk. Complementary palettes create bold contrast but require care. Start with Monochromatic when in doubt: pick one color you love and explore its tints and shades.
How do I check if my palette is accessible? +
Use a contrast checker tool (like WebAIM's Contrast Checker) to test each foreground/background color pair in your palette. WCAG AA requires a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Many palette generators include built-in contrast checking.
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