Color Palette Generator

Choose a base color and generate harmonious palettes ready to use in design, website, and app projects.

How to use colors harmoniously in design

Color theory defines harmonic relationships between hues that naturally complement each other visually. These relationships are based on the position of colors on the color wheel — a fundamental tool for designers, artists, and anyone who wants to create professional, aesthetically pleasing color combinations.

Understanding color harmonies is the first step to creating coherent palettes. Each type of harmony conveys a different feeling and serves specific purposes in branding, web design, illustration, and more projects.

Types of color harmony

Complementary harmony uses two opposite colors on the wheel — for example, blue and orange or red and green. This high contrast draws attention and is ideal for calls-to-action, highlights, and elements that need to stand out in a composition.

Analogous harmony combines neighboring colors on the wheel, such as blue, blue-green, and green. The result is a smooth, balanced, easy-to-read palette, widely used in app interfaces, institutional websites, and projects that convey calm and trust.

Triadic harmony divides the color wheel into three equal parts, creating vibrant, rich palettes — like red, yellow, and blue. Despite the diversity of colors, the balance between them ensures visual cohesion when well applied.

Beyond these, there are variations like split-complementary harmony, which softens the contrast of complementary colors by using the two colors adjacent to the opposite one, and square or rectangle harmony, with four colors distributed symmetrically on the wheel — great for more complex compositions.

The 60-30-10 rule

To apply color harmonies in design projects in a balanced way, follow the 60-30-10 rule: use a dominant color for 60% of the composition (backgrounds, larger areas), a secondary color for 30% (sections, components), and an accent color for just 10% (buttons, icons, details). This proportion avoids visual clutter and naturally guides the user's eye through the most important elements of the interface.

Use our color harmony tool to explore combinations in real time, preview complementary, analogous, and triadic palettes, and export hex codes ready for your project.

Frequently asked questions

What is a complementary color?
Complementary colors sit opposite each other on the color wheel — for example, blue and orange, red and green. They create high visual contrast and are widely used to highlight calls-to-action, buttons, and elements that need to stand out in a composition.
How do I copy the generated colors?
Click any swatch to copy the HEX code straight to your clipboard. You can also export all HEX codes at once or generate ready-to-use CSS variables for your project with a single click.
What's the difference between HEX, RGB, and HSL?
HEX is the format most commonly used in CSS (#1a6b4a). RGB describes a color by its red, green, and blue intensity (0–255). HSL describes it by hue (0–360°), saturation, and lightness — more intuitive for manual adjustments and creating lighter or darker variations of the same color.
Which color harmony should I use for my site or app?
For digital interfaces, analogous harmony is the safest choice — neighboring colors on the wheel create a smooth, cohesive experience. Complementary works well for highlighting buttons and CTAs with high contrast. Monochromatic is ideal for minimalist, elegant layouts. Triadic offers more visual energy and works well for campaigns and landing pages that need to feel lively.
How do I use the generated palette as CSS variables?
Click "Copy as CSS variables" to get a :root { --color-1: #hex; } block ready to paste into your stylesheet. Each variable is named after its chromatic role (base, complementary, analogous, etc.), making maintenance and visual consistency easier across the whole project.
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