Color Palette Generator Tool

Strong palettes make interfaces feel intentional. A good set includes an anchor color, a few neighbors for variety, and contrast pairs that work for text and backgrounds. This generator starts with a base hex color and produces monochrome, analogous, complementary, triadic, or tetradic sets. It shows swatches with copy buttons so you can paste values into tokens or a design file without retyping.

Quick start - choose a base and a scheme

Pick a base color with the picker or paste a hex code. Select a scheme that matches your use case. Monochrome creates a vertical scale for backgrounds and borders, analogous creates subtle variety for sections, complementary adds pop with an opposite, triadic and tetradic create structured families for large systems. Set the swatch count and generate. Copy individual hex values or grab the whole line for a design token entry.

Color theory - useful rules for software

Analogous sets use neighboring hues and usually feel calm. Complementary pairs sit across the wheel and draw attention - useful for callouts and alerts when used sparingly. Triadic and tetradic sets balance three or four hues at equal distances so the system feels cohesive. The goal in software is not art - it is clarity. Use color to group related elements, mark states, and provide feedback without overwhelming the layout.

Accessibility - contrast and states

Color must carry meaning without excluding readers. Check text on your palette using a contrast tool and aim for ratios that meet the WCAG criteria for body and UI text. Remember to plan hover, active, and focus states that keep contrast strong. If a hue fails at small sizes, reserve it for surfaces and use a darker variant for text or borders. The WCAG guidance remains the best baseline for practical choices in real interfaces.

Tokens and theming - keep names stable

Name colors by role rather than hue - primary, surface-1, border-weak, text-strong. This keeps code clean when the theme changes. Store hex values in a token file and apply them through variables so components read the role, not the hex. When you refresh a palette, you update tokens and the interface follows. This approach also simplifies dark mode because you can map roles to different values per theme without changing component code.

Comparison - hand-picked palettes vs generated sets

Bullet notes - palettes that work in production

• Use a neutral scale for backgrounds and dividers so accents stay meaningful.
• Limit strong complementary use to focus areas like CTAs or alerts.
• Test your palette on low-end displays to catch banding or muddy transitions.
• Map roles to tokens early - it pays off when the palette changes later.

Real example - scaling a brand blue

A startup had a distinct brand blue but struggled to build a UI scale from it. We used monochrome to create five steps from surface to text and analogous for tabs and highlights. The result kept the brand recognizable while solving practical needs like focus rings and table hovers. Because tokens carried the values, the team switched to a slightly warmer base a month later without touching components.

Two questions before you publish

• Does each role in your design system map to a token value from this palette so future changes are safe?
• Do your text and control states meet contrast guidelines at small sizes as well as large blocks?

Palettes become powerful when they are simple to apply. Generate a base, name tokens by role, test contrast, and keep strong hues for the few elements that need attention. The rest of the interface can live in calm colors that support the work your reader came to do.