Softonic

Color Palette Generator

Step 1 / 4 Palette builder

Pick a base HEX color, choose a harmony scheme, and generate a palette that is ready to copy into a UI mockup, landing page, chart or design system. The tool normalizes short or full HEX values, builds the palette with HSL hue and lightness shifts, and returns clickable swatches plus CSS custom properties.

How the palette generator works

  1. 1

    Enter a base HEX color

    Use the color picker or type a value such as #6366F1. Three-digit shorthand is expanded automatically.

  2. 2

    Choose a harmony scheme

    Select monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triadic or tetradic depending on whether you need a quiet scale, nearby hues or stronger accent colors.

  3. 3

    Generate and review the swatches

    The palette appears as copyable HEX swatches. Check the colors in the real interface before treating them as final.

  4. 4

    Copy the output

    Use the export step to copy the HEX list or CSS variables named --palette-1, --palette-2 and so on.

Choose the right scheme

Scheme Output Best for Check before shipping
Monochromatic 5 tints and shades of one hue Brand scales, cards, backgrounds Add an accent or neutral if everything feels too flat
Analogous 5 neighboring hues Gradients, illustrations, calm product screens Make sure adjacent colors are distinct enough
Complementary Base colors plus the opposite hue CTA accents, badges, high-energy visuals Test text and icon contrast carefully
Triadic 3 evenly spaced hues Playful branding, charts, category colors Pick one dominant color so the UI does not feel noisy
Tetradic 4 hues around the wheel Dashboards, tags, broader visual systems Reduce saturation when the palette covers large areas

Practical palette structure

A generated harmony is a starting point, not a complete design system. For production UI work, name colors by role instead of by appearance: primary, secondary, accent, surface, border, text, success, warning and error. Add neutral grays separately, because neutrals usually need tighter control than a hue-based generator can provide.

Use the generated HEX colors directly in a prototype, then promote only the colors that survive real screens, dark and light backgrounds, and disabled or hover states.

CSS variable export

The export step uses simple custom properties:

:root {
  --palette-1: #6366F1;
  --palette-2: #818CF8;
  --palette-3: #4F46E5;
}

Rename those variables to your own system names when you paste them into CSS, Tailwind theme tokens or a design token file.

HEX, RGB and HSL

The input and visible output are HEX because that is the fastest format to copy between CSS, design tools and issue comments. Internally, the palette is calculated by converting the base color to HSL, shifting hue or lightness, then converting the results back to HEX. If you need the same colors in RGB or HSL notation, run the generated HEX values through a color code converter.

Contrast and accessibility

Harmony schemes do not guarantee accessibility. Before using a pair for text, controls or charts, check it with a contrast checker:

  • Normal text against its background: 4.5:1 minimum for WCAG AA.
  • Large text: 3:1 minimum.
  • Important non-text UI parts such as button borders, icons, focus rings and chart edges: 3:1 minimum against adjacent colors.

Also avoid relying on hue alone. Two colors can look different in a swatch and still fail when used for small text, thin icons or color-coded status labels.

Tips

  • Start with a meaningful base color, such as an existing brand color, product color or campaign accent.
  • Choose one dominant color and treat the rest as supporting colors. Equal weight makes most interfaces feel busy.
  • Lower saturation for large surfaces such as app backgrounds, panels and hero sections.
  • Retest after theming. A palette that works on a white background can fail in dark mode or inside dense charts.

Frequently Asked Questions

No. It creates color harmonies, then you should test important foreground and background pairs in a contrast checker before publishing.

Each scheme follows a different color-wheel relationship. Triadic returns three hues, tetradic returns four, while monochromatic, analogous and complementary give five swatches for a more usable working set.

The current input is HEX. Convert RGB or HSL to HEX first, then use the result as the base color.

Monochromatic and analogous palettes are usually easiest for quiet UI surfaces. Complementary, triadic and tetradic palettes are stronger for accents, category colors and visual campaigns.

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