A color scheme generator can help you explore combinations, but a palette that looks balanced is not automatically readable or accessible. For an app or website, you need colors that work in real interface roles: page backgrounds, text, links, buttons, borders, and status messages.
If you are still choosing a direction, our guide to the psychology of color in design is useful context. Then use a generator to explore options and validate the combinations in your actual interface.
Color scheme generators and palette tools
Adobe Color
Adobe Color lets you start with a color, apply a color-harmony rule, and generate a palette. It is a good starting point when you have a brand color and want related options. Treat the result as inspiration; check the resulting text and interface combinations separately.
The image below is retained from the original article and shows an earlier version of the interface.
Realtime Colors
Realtime Colors previews colors and typography in a website-like layout. That makes it easier to judge how a palette feels across page backgrounds, headings, body text, and accents than it is with a row of swatches alone. Use the preview to compare directions, then test your own content and components.
ColorSpace
ColorSpace generates palettes and gradients from a starting color, including gradients made from three colors. It can help when you already have a brand or product color and need related options. Check any gradient behind text for contrast at every point where text appears.
Accessible Palette
Accessible Palette helps build a color system with consistent lightness and displays WCAG contrast information for its palette steps. It is useful when you need several shades for a design system rather than a handful of unrelated colors. Confirm the exact foreground and background pair used by each component.
Extract colors from an image
If you have a product photo, illustration, or existing brand image, mdigi.tools Color Extractor can identify dominant colors to use as a starting point. It does not decide which colors are appropriate for text or controls, so run those combinations through the contrast checks below. Read our guide to getting a color palette from an image for more detail.
Accessible color palette builder
The Accessible Color Palette Builder from the original article is another place to explore color combinations. Treat any palette or matrix as a design aid, not as proof that a finished page conforms to accessibility requirements.
A practical workflow for using a generated palette
- Choose a starting point. Use a brand color, a color sampled from an image, or a neutral base that suits the product. Decide whether the interface needs a light theme, a dark theme, or both.
- Assign roles before choosing every shade. Start with page and surface backgrounds, primary text, secondary text, links, primary actions, borders, and feedback states. This keeps the palette tied to actual interface needs.
- Generate and refine options. Try a few related hues and lightness levels. Prefer a small, reusable set over many colors that have no clear purpose.
- Name colors by role in your code. Semantic tokens such as
--color-text,--color-surface, and--color-actionare easier to update than names tied to a particular hue. - Check contrast for real foreground and background pairs. WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.4.3 sets a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text at Level AA. Success Criterion 1.4.11 covers contrast for visual information needed to identify user-interface components and states, and for meaningful graphical objects. Apply the criteria to the actual combinations in your interface, not just adjacent colors in a palette.
- Do not use color as the only signal. WCAG's Use of Color guidance explains why links, errors, and status changes should have another visual or textual cue as well.
- Review interactive states and content. Check buttons, focus indicators, validation messages, charts, and both themes with realistic text. A contrast ratio alone does not assess keyboard access, focus visibility, or whether the interface communicates clearly.
For more background on contrast tools and techniques, see this color-contrast guide.
Color tools from mdigi.tools
You can also explore mdigi.tools, which has browser-based color tools for common design tasks:
- Color Shades Generator for shades in RGB, HEX, HSL, or HSV.
- Color Converter for converting between RGB, HEX, and HSL.
- Gradient Generator for linear and radial gradients.
- Bright Color Generator and Pastel Color Generator for exploring random color values.
Original screenshots retained
The following images were already part of the article. They are kept as historical media and are not current screenshots or endorsements of the services pictured.
Further reading
Explore these related articles to learn more about choosing and combining colors: