You have 8 ways to generate a color palette on our site. Most people wonder why there are 8 and how to choose the one they need.
This quick guide is for designers and founders using colorjoy.me who are overwhelmed by the myriad of online color palette generators and want the right palette, not just a palette.
We built eight generators because one size doesn't fit all design problems.
Note all generators create some additional data on the spot, like the max contrast within the palette or the likely feelings the colors evoke. This is a quick guide to aligning colors to your branding or accessibility requirements.
To use all generators, you need a free user account.
The Best Color Palette Generator for your design needs
1. Manual mode - if you want full control and manual setup or tweaking
Use the manual mode. This is the standard you can always revert to. It is also intended to help you tweak palettes.
So you can add / remove colors, lock colors, use color harmonies for randomly updated colors (that are not locked). It also lets you tweak the whole palette by adding a tint or shifting hue, lightness or saturation.
When to use: full control, tweaking
2. UI color - if you want high-contrast, accessibility-first palettes
Use this mode if your designs require high contrast within the palette. Choose the number of colors you want and press the dice button. It looks for two high-contrast start colors and crafts gradient colors in between. If you like the combo, save it or in case you want to tweak it further, just switch to the manual mode.
When to use: high contrast, accessible designs
3. Art color - if you want unique and coordinated palettes
This mode creates unique and coordinated palettes. It is doing so by searching for colors on a random curve in the color space. The colors look coordinated, because they have some relationship from the originating curve. You may compare it to analogous colors from the standard color wheel, but it is more advanced because it does vary more than just hue.
When to use: unique and coordinated palettes
Best use: up to 5 colors
4. Start color - if you already have a Brand Color
If you have a brand color or start color to work with, use this mode. Choose the number of colors and the color harmony scheme you want to apply and press the dice button. This expands the start color into a palette.
When to use: Adding colors to a given color
5. Wheel - if you like are visual chooser
This mode is great if you want to apply color harmony rules on a wheel. Choose the mode and mode the cursor on a wheel. This tool supports nine common harmony rules and varying saturation with distance from the center. I find this tool to be a great starting point. For refined results switch to the manual mode afterwards and tweak the colors to your liking.
When to use: Want to choose a colors from a color harmony or want to explore about these harmony rules.
6. Distant colors - if you want colors within a certain range of hue, saturation and lightness
This mode creates colors that are as separate as possible for good legibility and accessibility, but with selectable ranges for hue, saturation and brightness. To use this limit or move the ranges for the hue, chroma and lightness
When to use: Fine grained control of palettes within defined hue, chroma and lightness ranges.
7. From image - If you're matching a photo/mood on auto
This mode is straight forward. Upload or paste an image and choose the number of colors you want. You will get a color combination that mirrors the colors from the image.
When to use: If you want to access a palette from an image automatically.
8. Eyedropper - if you want to pick colors from an image yourself
Similar to the "from image" mode this lets you upload or paste an image. Place the cursor and click at positions where you want the color to take. Pick multiple and you have your color scheme.
START HERE: What's your situation?
├─ "I have a brand color already"
│ → START COLOR MODE (#4)
│
├─ "I have an image/photo for inspiration"
│ ├─ "Let an algorithm extract colors automatically"
│ │ → FROM IMAGE MODE (#7)
│ │
│ └─ "I want to pick colors myself"
│ → EYEDROPPER MODE (#8)
│
├─ "I need high contrast / accessibility"
│ → UI COLOR MODE (#2)
│
├─ "I want to explore color harmony rules"
│ → WHEEL MODE (#5)
│
├─ "I want unique, coordinated colors"
│ → ART COLOR MODE (#3)
│
├─ "I need colors within specific ranges"
│ → DISTANT COLORS MODE (#6)
│
└─ "I want full control / to tweak a palette"
→ MANUAL MODE (#1)
Link to the color palette generators: here