Color Palette Generator — Free Online

How the Color Palette Generator Works

Toolkiya's palette generator works in HSL color space, where each color is defined by hue (0–360°), saturation, and lightness. Starting from a base color you pick — via color picker, hex input, or by extracting from an uploaded image — the tool generates harmonies by rotating the hue: complementary (180° opposite), analogous (±30°), triadic (120° apart), tetradic (90° apart), and split-complementary.

For image-based palettes, the uploaded photo is downsampled in the browser and run through a k-means clustering algorithm to find the dominant 5–8 colors. Each palette shows hex, RGB, HSL, and CMYK values for every swatch, plus contrast ratios so you can check WCAG accessibility for text-on-background pairs. Nothing is uploaded.

When to Use a Color Palette

Picking a brand color scheme for a logo, website, or product launch. Generating UI palettes for a design system with primary, secondary, and accent colors. Extracting colors from a mood-board photo to inspire interior design or wedding decor. Building Figma or Tailwind color tokens from a base brand color. Checking accessibility contrast for text and button color combinations.

Why Use Toolkiya for Palettes

Coolors, Adobe Color, and other palette tools work well but lock advanced features (image extraction without limits, exporting to design tokens, contrast-checking integration) behind accounts or paid tiers. Toolkiya runs every part of the workflow — harmony generation, image clustering, contrast checks, format exports — locally in your browser.

There is no signup, no daily palette limit, and no upload of your mood-board images. Export formats include CSS variables, Tailwind config, SCSS, Figma JSON, and a plain hex list, so you can plug palettes straight into your toolchain.

Tips for Choosing a Palette

Start with one strong brand color and let harmonies suggest the rest — don't pick 5 random colors and try to make them work. Always check contrast ratios for your darkest text on your lightest background; WCAG AA needs 4.5:1 for body text. Limit a palette to 5–7 colors; more than that becomes hard to use consistently. Save palettes with names tied to their purpose (primary, accent, danger) so you remember what each color is for.