Random colour and palette generator
Generate random colours or a harmonious palette, with contrast checked.
How it works
Generates random colours, or a palette built on a colour-wheel relationship: complementary, analogous, triadic, split-complementary or monochromatic.
Palettes are generated in HSL rather than by picking random RGB values, because RGB randomness produces muddy, unrelated colours. Working from a hue angle and holding saturation and lightness in a sensible band is what makes a set look deliberate.
Each colour reports its contrast against black and white per WCAG 2.1, which is the number that decides whether text on it is legible. A palette that looks good and fails contrast is a palette you will have to redo once accessibility is checked, so it is checked here first.
Colour-wheel harmony is a convention from art teaching rather than a law of perception. It is a useful starting point, not a rule.
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, logged or stored, and the page keeps working with the network disconnected.
Common questions
- What is a complementary colour?
- The hue directly opposite on the colour wheel, 180° away. It gives the strongest contrast between two hues.
- Why generate palettes in HSL rather than RGB?
- Random RGB values produce unrelated, muddy colours. HSL lets you vary hue while holding saturation and lightness, which is what makes a set look intentional.
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Sources
- Calculated on this page — At One Place