Color Palette Generator — Harmonious HEX Palettes

About the Colour Palette Generator

This generates five-colour palettes built on colour-theory relationships, so the colours actually work together instead of clashing. It's a starting point for a brand, website, poster, slide deck, illustration or UI — somewhere to begin when you're staring at a blank swatch panel. Pick a harmony type, generate until something clicks, and click any swatch to copy its HEX code straight into your design tool or CSS.

How it works — the harmony types

It starts from a random base hue and derives the others using positions on the colour wheel, then converts each to a HEX code:

Analogous — hues close to the base (neighbours on the wheel), for a calm, cohesive look.
Complementary — the base plus its opposite (180° away), for high contrast.
Triadic — three hues evenly spaced 120° apart, balanced and vivid.
Monochromatic — one hue at several lightness levels, a subtle tonal range.
Random — five unrelated hues, for happy accidents.

Saturation and lightness are varied within pleasant ranges so the swatches read as a set.

Assumptions and behaviour

Each palette has five colours, generated from HSL relationships and output as HEX.
A fresh random base hue is chosen each time you generate, so you get a new palette on every click even with the same harmony type.
Saturation sits in a mid-to-high range and lightness is spread across the swatches, so colours are usable rather than washed out or muddy.
Click a swatch to copy its HEX; copy the whole set at once too.

Limitations

It doesn't check colour contrast for accessibility. A palette that looks good isn't automatically WCAG-compliant for text-on-background; verify contrast ratios separately before using two of these colours as text and background.
Palettes are generated, not curated — the harmony rules keep them coherent, but taste still matters; regenerate until one fits.
It outputs HEX only (no RGB/HSL export or named roles like "primary/accent").
It produces five colours per palette; it doesn't build full tint/shade scales for a design system.

Privacy

Palettes are generated entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.

Frequently asked questions

Is this colour palette generator free?

Yes — free, no sign-up, no limits, runs in your browser.

What harmony types can I choose?

Analogous, complementary, triadic, monochromatic and fully random — each based on colour-wheel relationships so the five colours work together.

How do I copy a colour?

Click any swatch to copy its HEX code, or use the copy-all button to grab the whole palette at once.

Are the palettes accessible for text?

Not guaranteed. The generator focuses on harmony, not contrast, so check WCAG contrast ratios before pairing two of the colours as text and background.

Why do I get a different palette each time?

It picks a fresh random base hue on every generate, so even the same harmony type produces a new set each click.

Can I get RGB or HSL values?

The output is HEX. You can convert HEX to RGB/HSL in your design tool if needed.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Everything runs locally in your browser; nothing is sent or stored.

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